FREDERIC  HARRISON 


BY 

GERALD  HEWES  CARSON 

A.  B.  University  of  Illinois,  1921 


THESIS 

SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS 
FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  MASTER  OF  ARTS  IN  ENGLISH 
IN  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS, 

1922 


URBANA,  ILLINOIS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/detaiis/frederickharrisoOOcars 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL 


J 


<^nk.  I 


-192- 


1 HEREBY  RECOMMEND  THAT  THE  THESIS  PREPARED  UNDER  MY 


SUPERVISION  BY 

ENTITLED  rlsJijic^  H~OU\AiX3  (TH 


BE  ACCEPTED  AS  FULFILLING  THIS  PART  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 


THE  DEGREE  OF  A^/o,  )/7  E/?j//sh 


tn?^n ^ 

In  Charge  of  Thesis 


Head  of  Department 


Recommendation  concurred  in* 


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Committee 


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Table  or  Contents 


Page 


. Birth.  Childhood,  and  Youth  of  Frederic 
Harrison.  — — - — — — — — --  — — 1 

I.  History  of  the  Harrison  Family,  — — 1 

II.  Birth  and  Childhood,  — — 2. 

III.  First  Schooling;  first  literary  efforts,  6 

IV.  Religious  Views,  — ... ...  9 

V.  Oxford,  — - - — — 10 

VI.  Lindoln's  Inn;  Progress  of  religious 

views;  visit  to  Comte,  — --  --  — - 14 

II .  The  LI  id  die  and  Later  Life  of  1‘rederic  Harrison  - 16 

I.  Influence  of  Comte,  — -*•  — — — — 16 


II.  Liberalisirt;  the  urimean  Y/ar;  tne 
Hapoleonie  succession;  Brinish  iru- 


perialisiTi;  Italian  independence,  — — 18 

III.  Conversion  to  Positivism,  — • - - ^:S3 

IV.  First  Publication,  --  — --  --  2b 

V.  Controversy,  --  --  --  --  — — — 28 

VI.  Harrison's  agenda  (aetat.  30),  — — ...30 

VII.  1861-1871,  — - — 53 


VIII.  Travels, 


35 


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Conoen  us  teige 

IX.  18’?l-iyiU,  -*•  — 37 

X,  Visit  to  America’,  — — 44 

III.  Poslx<ive  8yn^nesls  or  Humajfi  Lire  — 48 

I.  Pnilosopnicai  cnaracter  and  nistor- 

ieal  position  of  positivism,  — — — 48 

II.  Sociology  and  economics,  --  — --  51 

III.  Education,  — — — 57 

IV.  Politics,  — — — ^ 60 

V.  Aesunetics, — — --  - 55 

IV.  Ine  pQsitiviso  as  Historian  — — — 76 

1.  Harrison's  Historical  criticism,  — 76 


II.  Tne  Positivist  philosophy  or  history,  8U 


V.  Tne  Literary  Criticism  or  Prederic  narrison  — 89 

I.  Harrison  the  Last  or  tne  Victorians,  - 89 

II.  Harrison  the  exemplar  or  correct 

criticism,  — — --  --  — - - — Ql 

III.  Harrison's  critical  canons,  — --  93 

IV.  Positivism  in  Harrison's  criticism,  — 97 

V.  narrison  as  interpreter  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  — --  — — - — - Iu8 

VI.  Harrison  as  critic  or  tne  twentieth 

century,  — — ~ — loe 

VII.  Harrison  as  stylist;  Harrison  on 

style;  Concjusion,  — — — - 109 


I 


The  Birth . Childhood « and  Y outh  of  Frederic  Harrison 

I. 

Of  northern,  rural  stock  originally,  Frederic 
Harrison  v/as  horn  of  London  parents.  His  grandfather 
abandoned  agriculture  in  Leicestershire  in  1?7U  for 
architecture  in  London.  The  continuity  of  profession 
froiTi  father  to  son  has  been  a powerful  unifying  tradi- 
tion in  the  Harrison  family.  And  even  as  the  Leicester- 
shire Harrisons  to  this  day  till  the  soil  i, except  those 
whose  farms  have  oeen  transformea  to  "real  estate"  by 
tile  encroachiTients  of  growing  towns) , so  do  the  Harrisons 
of  London  still  follow  the  arts.  Of  the  descendants  of 
the  original  London  Harrison,  twelve  have  been  painters 
or  architects,  — "as  are  my  own  eldest  and  youngest 
sons",  adds  our  present  representative  of  the  family. 

His  father  was  born  September  23,  1799.  He  was  trained 
as  an  architect,  but  at  the  age  of  seventeen  he  "went 
into  business  in  the  City".  He  entered  a rirm  of  stock- 
brokers of  which,  because  of  his  Industry,  frugality, 
and  honest  dealings,  he  eventually  becarae  senior  partner. 
Throughout  his  period  of  activity  the  business  grew  and 
prospered,  its  success,  if  we  may  believe  Frederic  Har- 
rison, due  in  no  small  degree  to  the  energetic,  solid 
chsTacter  of  his  father,  who  v;as  able  ultimately  to  re- 
tire upon  a considerable  fortune. 


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II. 

In  the  early,  hard  years  the  elder  Harrison 
formed  careful  hahits  which  clung  to  him  throughout 
his  life.  He  was  an  economical  man,  and  it  was  not 
until  he  was  in  his  thirtieth  year  that  he  ventured  to 
assume  the  estate  of  a husband.  In  October,  1829,  how- 
ever, at  St.  Pancras  Church,  he  married  Jane  B^ice, 
daughter  of  Alexander  Brice,  a granite  merchant  of  Mil- 
bank,  whose  family,  originally  from  Ulster,  viras  of 
Scotch-Irish  descent. 

In  the  great  quarto  Prayer-book  of  the  Har- 
risons it  is  entered  that  on  the  18th  day  of  October, 

1831,  at  noon,  in  the  Parish  of  St.  Pancras,  was  born 

1 

baby  yrederic  Harrison,  who  v/as  duly  christened  on 
December  29  of  that  year,  the  eldest  of  five  sons,  the 
son  of  High  Gnurcn  parents,  v/ith  a High  Church  god- 
father, Robert  Hichen,  partner  of  the  parent  Harrison, 
in  attendance.  The  other  godfather.  Sir  John  Cov/an, 
was  a wine  merchant,  and  subsequently  became  Lord  Mayor 
Ox  London.  Under  such  highly  auspicious  circumstances 
did  little  ^prederic  make  his  first  public  appearance. 

It  is  a strange  misfortune  that  Harrison  does 
not  leave  to  us  any  very  intim.ate  or  extended  account 
of  his  parents,  pheirs  was  evidently  a home  of  culture 
and  refinement,  in  which  the  ini'luence  of  the  church 

1.  The  boy  was  named  after  his  father,  the  final  '‘k" 
being  left  off  of  his  Christian  name  for  identifi- 
cation. 


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was  a constant,  abiding  force.  Both  parents  were 
regular  coimnuni cants,  and  fejnlly  prayers  were  read 
dally  by  his  father,  Harrison  says,  "with  admirable 
feeling",  gven  while  Frederic  was  very  small,  he  was 
taken  by  his  father  to  the  National  Gallery  and  the 
Royal  Academy.  "My  special  leaning  was  to  sculpture", 
he  writes  in  his  autobiography,  "and  as  a small  boy 
I had  very  firm  notions  of  tne  respective  merits  of 
the  ’Theseus*  and  the  'Illssus*,  the  'Laocoon*  and 
the  ’Apollo  Belvidere*".  At  ten  years  he  knew  the 
parts  and  the  arrangement  of  the  Parthenon. 

Nor  was  the  drama  neglected.  Both  parents 
read  beautifully,  the  father  interpreting  Shakespeare, 
Harrison  says,  "v/ith  a vigour,  clearness,  and  grctce 
which  I have  never  heard  surpassed",  strangely  enough, 
the  Harrison  children  received  no  treiining  in  music, 
though  the  Harrisons  seem(  to  have  been  in  no  wise 
deficient  in  its  appreciation.  So  it  was  not  until 
he  was  sixteen  years  old  that  Frederic  heard  the  sym- 
phonies of  rBeethoven  and  Mozart.  After  that  he  lis- 
tened 7/ith  delight  to  string  (quartettes,  and  heard  all 
the  great  violinists  of  the  '40' s,  even  seeing  in  184? 
Mendelssohn  himself  conduct  a concert. 

Muswell  Hill,  where  the  Harrisons  lived  for 
the  first  years  of  Frederic's  life,  was  still  a (quiet 
country  village,  where  life  passed  in  leisurely  fashion, 
not  always,  perhaps,  without  monotony.  Yet  there  was 


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variety, too.  There  were  freq.uent  trips  to  London;  concerts 
picture  galleries,  and  the  dentist  to  be  seen.  Once  or 
twice  a year  the  virhole  household  was  transported  to  the 
seaside.  They  also  enjoyed  the  privileges  or  more  ex- 
tended travels.  The  boys  spent  four  summers  on  the  Con- 
tinent; two  at  Boulogne,  and  two  in  Normandy.  The  High- 
lands of  Scotland  v/ere  also  visited. 

Promi  what  we  have  seen  of  the  efforts  of  the 
Harrisons  to  surround  their  children  witn  cultural  ad- 
vantages, at  an  age  when  most  children  have  yet  to  learn 
that  they  have  an  intelligence  as  well  as  a body  to  dev- 
elop, it  is  not  surprising  uo  learn  xhat  they  had  defin- 
ite, and  perhaps  somev/hat  austere  ideas  on  the  subject  of 
education.  Mrs.  Harrison  was  herself  an  educated  woman. 

"She  and  my  father  studied  v/ith  great 
care  the  principles  of  education,  and 
were  never  weary  of  inviting  and  com- 
paring views  of  all  capable  persons 
whom  they  knew.  They  strongly  adopted 
tne  ideas  of  'Home  Education'  expounded 
by  Isaac  Taylor,  for  whose  moral  and 
religious  thoughts  my  parents  v/ere  en- 
thusiasts. It  v/as  the  age  of  the  Mrs. 
Barbaulds,  Mrs.  Markhams,  and  Harriet 
Martineaus;  and  I fear  that  the  sterner 
and  duller  idea  of  education  was  tiie  one 
that  principally  attracted  them."  ^ 

j'rederlc  was  allowed  to  read  poetipy  or 

fiction,  and  he  had  never  even  heard  as  a child  of  the 
ordinary  nursery  rhymes,  songs,  and  tales  which  with 
most  children  represent  the  first  steps  in  literature. 


1.  Autobiographic  Memoirs  V.I,  p.9. 


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5. 


His  geographic  studies  never  revealed  to  him  the  lo- 
cation or  even  the  existence  of  fairyland.  Haturally 
he  never  made  the  acq.uaintance  of  Jack  the  Giant-Killer 
and  Cinderella. 

However  deficient  this  scheme  of  education 
may  have  been  in  stimulating  the  imagination,  it  was 
calculated  to  make  a good  positivist.  Similarly,  a 
like  regime,  twenty-five  years  before,  administered  by 
James  Mill,  had  produced  a great  utilitarian. 

The  Harrison  family  enjoyed  some  urbanities 
which  relieved  the  drabness  of  a life  v/ithout  electric 
lights. 

"So  far  as  I can  remember,  a dinner 
party  then  was  very  much  v/hat  it  is 
now,  — except  that  the  host  carved 
his  joint,  — the  dishes,  and  the  wines, 
and  the  plate,  and  the  govms,  and  the 
talk,  which  I can  remember  as  a child, 
when  I came  in  with  the  dessert  to  eat 
strawberries  at  my  mother’s  side,  were 
curiously  like  what  I see  and  hear  when 
I dine  with  any  quiet  family  in  St.  John’s 
Wood  now.  I remember  how  the  merits  of 
the  new  singer,  or  actor,  or  painter  v/ere 
debated;  how  the  v/onderful  achievement  of 
the  ’Rocket’  coach  was  celebrated;  and 
how  the  gigantic  growth  of  London  was 
denounced  by  the  elders.”  ^ 

¥/ith  the  indignation  of  five  and  a half  years, 
Frederic  learned  in  1838  that  King  William  IV  was  dead, 
and  was  to  b e succeeded  by  a girl.  He  v/as  taken  to  see 
the  ceremony  of  the  coronation,  however.  Among  the  im- 
pressions which  v/ere  Indelibly  traced  on  his  mind,  Har- 


Autobiographic  Memoirs,  i.  p,i2. 


'A' 


iv*  '•>,.  'i 
^..  :r.-..,  -{it  vir3; '.r  ■ i: 


' '. S-i. .'^  - i ‘ I 


ifA 


% %i 


it  C aiw;  'i^'k  . to'  t*i  >i  *♦  " -Jtt  i^a-rr -J^ . 

Beans  ' 

R\^  ' V 


m 


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* - I , il*' 

,r.->  ,.rd-\t  ■ ' /£ 

s '.^  -■fe-'  .'i3  , i.'  - ’ttii^;^!^:}  .->-^ 

Tj-  >..ii  < ii..*a;:i;  _ ,.'t.'.  1 iAt4*V•'«'^^; 

_ ■"■  . , 

. .’ . t.* :.  '*  fA  . t c cl;;:.© 

t'#  Uff'-’'*  ■ . '•  -*  , i '•>  S' 

^ '0.^^^:*, ■ i ^*  :.  - , s'ri^ i(?| 

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/:j,'i..c  ^ fM-.'^'v.fi^.-...'.  I jvi.i.  X 

:/:  .>  .v'  '^S;- ;i^-. • -tl  :«Wtt  ■ly.llHi 


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«t  * T ^ '<< 

,..  . li 

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'* 

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,♦•  t*A*f 

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^C.  :MHifi7:^X3^  ,A:r'i;^-'f^x/t;  * i-4." 

it  a.»^  WO.'itsv:  >4 

ki-jiftlia^.^  ■-  ! •Ti-i'V>j  '.  i. 

• ’’■-i'isi.i  ■ ts'irt  X|P  4jc*vCi4^^;S 
i - i ,U» %''’tS'ACi  ir • .]|^*^  .•  f^.'  ,M«;..rv/'^'5^;<l.' ,' 

» *'  ^ \i  " 

:''  ;riife 

,■  ,.  .' ' ■ .-'I  Ji- %'.  ‘^Wiilalnflit^- 


j . *.•  '**  ■ ,1  • , . ‘ “S-  *<.'.-®’.-J?„  ■'>■■.  I’:' j\i  ,'  ■'•$ 


rf, 


6 


rison  speaks  of 

"The  sense  of  vastness  of  the  city  and  people, 
the  intense  concentration  of  all  minds  on 
the  public  festival,  the  civic  enthusiasm 
(one  can  hardly  call  it  loyalty)  for  a charm- 
ing girl  who  succeeded  to  three  commonplace 
Old  men,  the  ambassadors  and  their  trains, 
the  Abbey  and  its  associations,  the  splendid 
shows  in  the  procession,  the  soldiers,  and 
the  horses,  and  the  martial  music 5 the  h\im  of 
the  huge  crowd,  and  the  expectation  of  all  men; 
the  glow,  and  discipline,  and  breadth  of  the 
vast  sight."  1 

One  feels,  in  view  of  t'nis  remarkable  sensitivity  to 
impression  on  the  part  of  little  prederic,  that  his  fru- 
gal parent  had  indeed  done  v/isely  in  incurring  the  "for- 
midable expense"  involved  in  moving  the  whole  fsmily  up 
to  London,  and  the  purchase  for  them  of  "such  excellent 
seats  in  so  central  a spot"  as  a gallery  outside  a house 
in  Great  George  Street,  facing  the  Abbey,  Palace  Yard, 
and  Westminster  Bridge. 


III. 

In  1840,  Prederic  being  nine  years  of  age,  the 
Harrisons  moved  up  to  London.  Frederic  was  placed  in  the 
day  school  of  Joseph  King,  whose  ideas  on  education,  the 
Harrisons  agreed,  after  a long  interview  with  him,  were 
sound,  and  in  harmony  ¥/ith  their  ovm.  King  "had  thorough- 
ly saturated  himself  with  the  new  school  of  German  phil- 
ology as  it  existed  in  1840."  So  thoroughly  did  he  do 
his  v;ork  as  teacher,  that  Harrison  recalls  that  "when  I 


1.  Ibid.  I.  p.25. 


DU 


-T  ■ ■../' 


: ^gK 

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pii;w  ' ( 

if 


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. '>  .>»;^  ■ 1'  ^cr,;r>  l^  «rv 


**  ^ ^ 


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* . j .'^r.v  •>.  «•■ 


-<%■  .’  ’<J/  » *>  ^ 

■ '«''  *' * '^ ' -■  i' • w 

v-titon'i:  .-rut.V  ',  ..\<j''ifi‘ '■.'  t'<^  ‘itteic,'';  ‘ * 

T I , ■ ' i :,  ■'  , i I' If  "f  7 \.i‘wmS^  ..#  j 


-,  . ■•■7]^''^  0" 

'4:r'  ‘^-  ■■ 


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m , '.  V 'i  ■’ 


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r»l‘.1^:.-"  f V' 

■' 


»« 


\ .- 


*•  f 

» ♦ >■  _ 


i »'■  *'  ait5\'''  V ■ ^ 

m^ 

/*■  >ta»  ,«u,/- »^t.-v^.yfli:  af.'M  ^'>ji!awfc^^ 
f 'JO  ci4'  > • . Veit) ; t * 'rx 

® -. . i'Vv'**''^**'*  I 

f 'li 


z^ . ' ii.  A 


went  to  King’s  college  gchool  after  two  years  of  this 
system  I could  read  Homer  and  Virgil,  Herodotus  and 
Livy  accurately,  and  was  completely  and  correctly 
grounded  in  all  the  ordinary  rules  of  grammar  involved". 
Within  the  same  period,  Harrison  learned  to  read  "a 
Greek  play,  the  ’Odyssey’,  and  Herodotus,  and  was  master 
of  the  Greek  accidence  and  syntax,  though  never  having 
seen  any  Greek  gramimar".  Among  Harrison’s  contempor- 
aries at  this  school  were  a nephew  of  Sir  Ed^vin  Landseer 
a son  of  the  actor  Macready,  a son  of  Charles  Dickens, 
and  two  sons  of  Richard  Bethell,  first  Lord  Westbury. 

Harrison  was  removed  to  King’s  Qollege  school 
in  April  1843.  Here  he  developed  "a  real  passion  for 
Latin  composition  and  some  gift  for  it",  although  his 
Latin  verses  "were  simply  modern  verses  in  the  Swin- 
burnian  vein,  with  little  that  was  classical  in  the 
rhythm  and  turn  of  expression".  At  various  times  in 
his  career  at  King’s  day  school  and  at  King’s  college 
School,  ;prederic  composed  ^ngllsh  verses  on  "assignment" 
The  lines  which  are  preserved  are  regular,  scan  nicely, 
but  are  otherv/ise  about  what  any  intelligent  schoolboy 
not  devoid  of  a sense  for  words  would  turn  out  on  oc- 
casion. A typical  example  may  be  taken  from  "The  Ship- 
wreck of  St.  Paul”: 

"The  air  was  mild,  the  sky  serene. 

The  v;aters  gently  foam, 

Ho  dark  or  threatening  cloud  was  seen, 

When  Paul  set  sail  for  Rome."  ^ 

1.  Ibid.  I.  p.74. 


’f  »*  4 .1 


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■4  ’’iiiYi 


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ES 


^ V 


_.w 

■ 


1 


■ ’*’’  */  *W3l' , 

^ '^E  'j  ' V 

•«»“«  Mb  l|i:««(N‘.''f -«««<a^  ;.%ti0Ra  4^'t ' 
; , ‘M*--*-  .'  j ' '■  ■'  

* I tv.  ■••-«. 


8. 


Harrison’s  last  excursion  into  verse  took  place 
at  King’s  college  School  and  was  entitled  ’’The  Virgin 
Martyr”.  When  she  sriiled  and  died,  his  career  as  a 
poet  came  to  a timely  end.  There  v/as  little  pleasure 
in  poetry  for  him,  he  vn?ote  in  his  "Autobiographic 
Memoirs”,  "nor  did  writing  poetry  every  give  me  any 
Interest,  though  writing  prose  always  gave  me  the  same 
kind  of  solace  v/hich  a dog  has  in  gnawing  a bone.” 

In  1849  Macaulay  published  the  first  two  volumes 
of  his  "History  of  England”,  lie  may  hear  a faint  echo 
of  its  style  in  a schoolboy  essay  of  Harrison’s  on  the 
assigned  question,  "Is  the  reign  of  Edward  III  or  of 
Elizabeth  the  more  glorious?”. 

"Erom  the  philosopher  to  the  peassjit — rrom  xhe 
man  of  action  to  the  man  of  theory — ^from  the 
warrior  to  the  ini*  ant — each  turns  thither  his 
admiring  gaze,  either  to  drav/  thereout  some 
guide  for  what  is  at  hand,  or  to  conjure  up 
hopes  for  what  is  to  come.  The  statesman  in 
his  closet  still  shapes  his  maturest  counsels 
eifter  the  watchful  moderation  of  cscil,  and 
the  man  of  war  in  his  tent  yet  kindles  as  he 
recalls  the  chivalry  of  the  Plantagenet.  The 
Lover  of  Letters  still  finds  inspiration  in  the 
genius  of  Shakespeare  and  Bacon;  and  the  Lover 
of  Arts  yet  bov/s  in  wondering  adoration  beneath 
the  dim  religious  aisles  of  Salisbury  and  of 
York.  So,  too,  the  aged  peasant  round  his 
hearth  warms  as  the  tells  of  the  days  of ' Good 
Queen  Bess;  and  the  child  on  its  mother’s  lap 
smiles,  with  vague  delight  as  it  lisps  the 
names  of  Qreci  and  Poitiers.”^ 

By  the  time  Harrison  went  up  to  Oxford  he  had  recovered 
from  his  attack  of  Macaulese,  and  had  learned  the  im- 
portance of  clarity  and  restraint. 


1.  Ibid.  I.  p.76. 


! * •itoj-y 

i y L V-,  -■’•  ■''<  ■ • ■ . •.* 


P ■ 1 -'‘i* 

1 ^ 

M 

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• T * 

if  ■■ 

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.'LO 

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w ■ '*■ 


« ' . >■ 


v^;i,  -7.:;  lit 

I ‘.  - ' . ■■  .i  - .1 


iraO'Cit} 

yi 


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X' 1.  ,,  'j  ■ ' I 

lyr^.  -vilr  .■  i/fii^T  '>4\U4i.i‘ 

■ ■*.  , ifkir  - ja  ■*'’  ''-Si'- 

no  #'4.r4  7^  -.iiA  p 

»> 

1»  ' ' ; 1 i'  'itt  _ _ _ 

■,T  ..-.'I'L'i  * - ^ ’ < ••'^' '''  ' li 

^■tr.  >.w^'  vjf/tcftijrt  ‘£,1 ',:  4 

I *'i’.  y *t  ■ ".«•*  .'  /•  • *.  ^ <»c^.  ,,-vr;m^ 


4u-.  '' 


ii  »’^*‘\*  -f  \:  _ J,/ 

A ; . 1 ^ 7.x  . < . tWHrV  k’ 


^ , , : '”  '■■-'*  . *•-*  it ’ » v*jp^  .iiwiyii  ‘ 

^ ’ “'  **'  ^ ^ ^ llU'vy ^ J 

. itt  k i-AlB  'r  t \ I.  r,  X -•  Ai'  ..  .(.  ; n vri.^VTSi k | jQH 


^ 'Y*  ../.^U7.f  ...V  -T-  , V ij  PX  4 i 

-iv  , .,  ..-.^.srn  k 

/#4?  'H  .1  ^ •♦ . . k. '■  *•  .»  ._  I-  ki-  "L  . ‘iST  ty'-A  . . X. 


Km* Ki. ';i ’•'‘•'•f  w’aa-.A 

i “ f:  -'i'  i-:‘ ■■  jf*:’ L'«':«?..?iC-, ' > 


-■<.!.(  i.t4i.l  7 ; aai  ,i;yJ,fX'.te  , tfiSS  ' ' 

' ' i.  ••  ‘'.My^^  1'  : 


; :■«  4rf-/fffc&  1 fi  -S-M':  '•iw/a.y4i<j<rpa;; 

■^';'i.  kkk  :i' .^  ' .kri'’....< 


' TH  «'  ^ 

. 


9 


”We  learned  at  last  to  write  decent  ]p;nglish; 
but  at  what  a sacrilice  of  time  and  'serious 
thought.  My  own  essays,  I find,  were  uni- 
formly written  in  formal  and  artificial  ' 
phrases  and  v/ithout  a word  erased  or  cor- 
rected. This  vicious  habit  I have  never  been 
able  to  shake  off.  The  exercise  of  using  the 
pen  is  to  me  as  pleasant  as  is  dancing  to  a 
girl  or  drawing  to  a born  artist."! 

IV. 

Harrison's  intellectual  progress  had  been  rapid 
at  Kiiig's  College  School.  Together  with  his  most  in- 
timate friend,  f^iharles  gookson,  and  a lad  namea  James 
Rolfe,  (\vho  died  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years),  Har- 
rison formed  a club  for  "discussing  poetry,  drama,  and 
literature,  questions  of  casuistry  in  morals,  religion, 
and  Eianners,  schools  of  architecture  and  political 
parties".  Gookson  was  a Wordsv/orthian,  a devout  Church- 
man, and  a divine-right  Tory;  Roife,  a disciple  of  Byron, 
a sceptic,  and  of  course  a Radical;  Harrison  staunchly 
supported  the  school  of  Pope  and  Dryden,  the  religious 
position  of  Paley,  and  the  conservative  party.  Hewman's 
"Tracts  Por  the  Times",  and  the  movement  in  the  church 
headed  by  Dr.  Pusey,  were  the  subjects  of  heated  dis- 
cussions. Harrison  was  thoroughly  saturated  v;ith  the 
gcrlptures.  His  knov^ledge  of  the  Bible  v^as  largely  his- 
torical, but  accurate.  "To  tnis  day",  he  confesses,  "I 
seldom  write  a paragraph  or  a page  v/ithout  a scriptural 
phrase  or  allusion  dropping  off  my  pen." 


1.  Ibid.  I,  p.80. 


nj»i»*tui|  fciU.  ^uiZj  wW 


fe  * ”441  ^IVl’^Jli!?!^’ 


*:,.n  r m'^  * ■ ^ 

‘ ;■■'  "■  ; 44>  :4>  tik  fc'J  *-*  '»ikJ  ljiiPOi  \ , fi.i  iX^'$-^^*t7-  'j 


^ . — , — 

• .^0  u-v'*Ywifiir-i'i  • »v>isytjjitt* 

.rta^'j  ’(v\*i^  X *.t  '?^ta*v  nH . 

^ ; .tiV2^^^^0vtr*ti«^  ■.  c*'  .r*o 

•-.  .i/f  V.?  ^ « 

''^  * ‘.  ^ ‘ ■ n -.M  ..A  i t<i''A'« 


.}■;  ,s 


•I 


**‘^^‘*  ^ ‘ ‘ < .^  *jp*/  1 V?5 


. - 

*'  Jbi‘il/Mri  <|p. 


. iv  . 

i!  a .'-'.Do  ni? 

'■#■■  ,-  . ’■ 

— ■’“'  ;4.. 

F ; i*  ..  ''  : . ..,,,-5/:^  ■■--''’.'r  . -A-  . . '■M^.  , 

;.ai  , u-u%t^  ,;^nr  af  ;yj:. "4(i1  -;‘C*7  * 4fA'n>i 


•'34 , • *'\*  ■’J^, 


■/  * ' ‘ ' 5 '<^  * ) W} 

j^  tr»:fy Wct*!  0 if  A,;.r*;4 

^ 4.  X^‘ li  t /*<•♦?  ■‘•^''^^2^  r i t*  i 


Itx" 


|.  {,  '•!  t'\J  7 4*1/  ’ 

k'  ■ :J  ■ 


•Iwl  . ■•:'■■•  '.'lit?'* 

_ . . .-  , * ’ 

I”'  fity’Ui  «A4nlt ' -'ii.L  4 , I I 

v*-»  •4'-9»ili  '''-^»  '‘  *'f#.  .1  i it-'t  XifiiH.  J *>t»'4Af'u'  i©  jjiy»  ,© 

' .-4r  iUflp'*  4KIO*!'  .1 

'y. 


VI  H 


t'l 


M • X 


j\Y 


luUlfr\A>« 

"2 


iio*!  . 


.vr^viwj  'i.-f,'3 

Km  «■ , ^ *"”■': 'n 

ai  4i  -‘u  4tk4  tfc  , 

•■  ' JLi\'»;l  "'^  ,(  *'-  AIT  » 

^ x<i  V^-  ■ 

-*;<t  V5o-^j  . ■ #fl 


•4)  .“tJ  A i 


W 


0,"  . i;.  t‘.p^ 


.t  i4  . ..  ' ^ 3 1'.i  -i'"  i^4  ^ I 


1 • 4 ■•■  I 

•%  I 


'jy 


r4'. 


“ •"■  J».  ...  'A*;  J,  ■>'•'>•  ,4  . |Tj|B  il 


... 


**"•'  *♦  ■'Jfi*’'  i V’  T#-  j 

-V/-  I'tfmyt’  . >§  ' ri«f‘^:V"r4i 

' f' 


t 


--Ai 


10. 

As  a youth,  Harrison’s  religious  faith  was  sin- 
cere, grounded  upon  the  uheology  expounded  hy  the  moder- 
ate wing  of  Anglican  divines.  He  prayed  honestly,  and 
rememhered  in  nis  old  age  that  he  "had  no  dcuht  whatever 
of  receiving  the  Holy  Ghost  if  I asiced  for  it  with  suf- 
ficient fervour;...  Hor  had  I any  doubt  that  I received 
in  my  lips  and  drank  the  body  and  blood  of  Qnrist." 

His  religious  experience  is  curious  in  that  he  records  in 
it  no  crises;  none  of  the  emotional  experiences  of  despond, 
exultation,  conviction  of  sin,  or  sudden,  devastating 
tides  of  scepticism  which  have  been  the  lot  of  most  men 
who  vmre,  as  Harrison  unquestionably  was,  of  a deeply 
religious  nature.  He  sloughed  off  Anglicanism  by  imper- 
ceptible degrees  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  twenty- 
four.  While  he  did  fall  into  prolonged  fits  of  melan- 
choly in  his  adolescence,  such  as  seem  inseparable  from 
sensitive  natures,  he  tells  us  that  he  "was  never  seriously 
ai'flicted  with  spiritual  despondency.” 

V. 

The  times  were  stirring  when  Frederic  Harrison 
entered  young  manhood.  The  Time -Spirit  was  restless  and 
iconoclastic.  In  1848-49  Europe  was  swept  by  a succession 
of  revolutionary  events  which  seemed  to  shadov;  forth  a 
rebirth  of  the  principles  of  the  prench  j^evolution,  and 
which  must  inevitably  have  made  a politician  of  every 
young  man  who  had  a sense  for  history  in  the  m^aking. 
BQgllshmen  everywhere  talked  of  socialism.  communls;n, 


ft  I ‘I 


■/.‘if 


t>mi 

T';  JiiU  ,'’fr.t!!W;,ii  :K^:4i’i<t' <ti .,  .\  ^ 


fc-1  i.  ■ i.p^ u^ ’t  R » x*i^i : ,' N ' • W'^j- 1 


[iW 


-.  ■ ■ - ■■'!  'i4l?  ‘ 


3?-  -V  1 ’ I'*  '•^l  ^ '- *1  *- 

‘ici  -:*r  .‘4.a.,  ii 

i'.  ^ ’T  1 V'  ■,  ;"1  ■ *' 


t 'U.^  rlsy4i  "j  V •*■’  vt***'^ ^?l'!  ''  0. 


7 


**^7  'f^  ' '*'" 

^jit:^Ud*\'.'if  , i’v  ' ‘ Jo  ,n-t.'^ 'iv'  kdfietviijlfi  « 


‘»  • • »*^.  ■«  4 Vt,V\ll  iJt  J'  4JW  >Vi!7n  ^ 

r6 ji*/ >iiflr. ' ■'  , f 

a * ' . ' ■'  \ ,n  ' ‘ ‘ ' ' '«.(  .-  ' ’ 


.1  -.i^.  n 

'4^ftc/w-  - *..  ..^i.-  'ic^  ■ ;.,*  atuhff^yr  ;% 

: :^'lia;**,'i  lo  ru'i^  s,iX 

.Slfflll  ' -V-l'*.  • ' *-  . ..  .4.  t'Si  : > 


. , ^ . ^'''  . ' 'iV'  v'f 

.>«-r  •»  r>  : '^4;  •,!?  tt f r >*-J-  ^2*,'n.;»1t^ff  •• 

»M>.  ' -'‘*TL^'i:  '":  ■ 5,'  ''ij’  ■ 

■ “m.  ’ \ ' ’ ‘ 


* » 

5 f 


4 ,.  5 ,0 J1  •i&lh  1 *1 


r 

: 1 .w 


W-. 


;i4f;*r  :^4!'VM;pv  "'i 

,,  itm.  Xla^tt^hd  r:j\i 

1 - t - ^ ‘ . -.A  > • - ^ j 1.  1 ‘V  • . * J ?f!F;'i  ■ ^ ■ 


..  -•'■  '.  '*'  S^',’  '‘'-  ‘ i 


11 


and  imperialism,  T/hile  the  aristocracy  and  the  pros- 
perous middle  classes  shuddered  at  the  threats  of  the 
Chartist  Movement,  and  the  demagogic  utterances  of 
Bright  and  Cohden.  Impressed  hy  the  complexity  of  the 
modern  life  about  him,  Harrison  was  too  much  interested 
in  the  procession  of  events,  his  sympathies  were  too 
fully  enlisted  here  and  there,  for  him  to  dogmatize  or 
to  explain  av/ay  what  he  saw  by  whatever  abstract  pol- 
itical theory  he  may  have  acc[uired  at  Oxford. 


"Gradually  I settled  into  a deep,  lasting  and 
passionate  sjonpathy  with  the  popular  cause 
every¥;here  and  in  all 'forms.  Having  no  her- 
editary or  acquired  prejudiees  in  favour  of 
any  class  or  of  any  special  type  of  society, 

I slowly  parted  with  my  boyish  liking  for 
conquerors,  cavaliers,  and  princesses  in  dis- 
tress, and  took  my  side  v/ith  the  cause  of  Op- 
pressed nations  and  the  struggling  people. 

I had  seen  the  niiar’tist  movement  in  London  and 
had  heard  great  debates  in  Parliament,  and  I 
became  a convinced  free  trader  and  an  ardent 
nationalist . " ^ 


At  this  time  the  greatest  theological  contro- 
versy of  the  century  was  in  full  tilt.  Its  cause  had 
emanated  from  Oxford,  where  the  High  church  group,  led 
by  J.H.  Hewman,  Keble,  Pusey,  and  others  alarmed  at  the 
dangerous  latitudinarianism  which  the  fashionable  liberal 
thought  of  the  day  introduced  into  theology,  reacted 
strongly  toward  Catholic  creed,  ritual  and  discipline. 
Four  years  previous  to  this  time,  of  course,  pr.  lev/man 
had  embraced  CQ'l'holicism.  This  epochal  reversal  of  con- 
viction had  scuttled  the  Tractarian  Movement,  while  its 


1.  Memoirs  and  Thoughts,  '^.y.  1906.  p.6 


. . ...  i iz..^ 
' I f y r.  f • ■ 

. N. 

-c>r  -V 

•10 


. I u 


tio 


.1 


v-AV-IV 


f. 


c 


’ V 


4 


!*...> : 

; - ' ■ ' i > ••  ^ . 
' ■■  • . 


1>  ’ '?>|V 

,,1-. 


5-  «, 


• \ 

'i  I X '.  j 

»■ 

.'.•oaV 


S ''  ■’ 

'•'i' 


. f ^ 


•i 


12 


possible  significance  liad  given  pause  to  the  hardiest 
High  ^hurchman.  father  ITeman  was  preaching  eloquently 
at  the  nev/ly  established  Birmingham  Oratory  (1849),  and 
was  looking  tentatively  toward  the  establishment  of  an 
oratory  in  London.  Indeed,  a powerful  cross-current  of 
Catholicism  ruffled  the  smooth,  easy  flow  of  the  latitu- 
dinarian  current  of  thought. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  hullaballoo,  with  some 
vague  notion  of  the  -positive  attitude  of  mind  toward  these 
perplexing  questions,  Harrison  went  up  to  Oxford  as  scholar 
of  Wadham  collage.  (October,  1849).  He  was  in  the  bud- 
ding maturity  of  his  eighteenth  year,  a free,  sophisti- 
cated, and  slightly  cynical  young  spirit.  Never  before, 
nor  in  his  subsequent  life,  I daresay,  was  Harrison  less 
encuTiibered  with  illusions.  Having  learned  that  all  things 
may  be  challenged,  that,  as  ^omte  said  with  specious  bril- 
liance, ’’all  generalizations  are  false — including  this 
one”,  we  may  easily  understand  that  he  felt  a profound 
respect  for  nothing.  He  remembers,  in  his  memoirs,  that 
he  ’’didn’t  look  to  Oxford  with  any  particular  reverence”, 
for  he  ’’had  already  lost  all  fiaith  in  its  theological  and 
political  traditions”.  Its  authorities,  its  possible 
honors  and  prizes,  inspired  only  an  ’’uncureable  distaste”. 
The  Oxford  system  he  thought  "very  wooden”,  and  tne  lec- 
tures "bores”;  the  Warden  ” a miserly,  clumsy  pedant; 

’’the  commoners  "raw  lads,  without  interest  or  knowledge 
of  the  world.”  These  sentiments  remind  one  of  the 
cocksure  young  Ruskln  of  gentleman-commoner  days,  as  he 


1 


Lt»'i 


nS,Tv;?,f?’nCC 


I si  ^ Xi  tiV^v  . .^inx/six^^tiu:  ;.K  . 

; • 1’  W;-  I v'.,  -■  rS'-'  *■  •v'''  ’’  •-  • ' -' ' '■ 


*'2  V-S 


^1*  '::'0  : *«i^'(K  ^Xw^ia^f  3^  -r 

-i.t,  ^ *rMfo4  •■  ;i^‘ 


i n 


fi’&'r*, 


>w 


.’/  tt* 


■ ■** ' '**'*■  i|  ‘ V 


■*  r • 

ot:  i-'(6‘'.‘‘0 


-jii 


ot;  *.*(6‘'.'‘()  -i  ..  -.  jV/  40»ni'tlir 

'■'  ''^■  '■  'i  ■ ■.^■T  Mh 

^’r  .ti4fkX  . »i4kXCcn 


•X  *-  *y*CjM  ^ 

:%i  y.-'-tti 

I •7^-K  , .■  1.  ^ 


1\.4>  ■ ' J 


a ”<? 


vs^;  ,w a:cn%L*M  m- r;  ,.  . , ,v’,./ 

i' r^-  j? r.,  i Sa~  < '*  V • •pria^^'  vxri * ei^^xv 

■ ■»  'r./^A  I4.*  Kii- tU 


u v-.^'  ;;ii.'CJ^tf-'  ■ 


- Ha  .iv^i.!  «4t  .»'  . < 


,««-  s 


t!T,',ot; 

■“  ’?; 


T - . If  I , il4'  ‘ 

a!  TSbSJ 

i*  'I 


Hi 


.n  ■;  . .'  ' , ■’  h:  ' ■ '"'  „ •>  , „■  7 


i: 


t i,s  ..''  ^ ^ '‘\.''j-^“‘  7',  .._ '^'ij 


■ ' ’%,^  ;h  U>- ,Vi*»  J'^a■^sj^X^^^ 

■ ;f  -‘  ■"'»■  -V  ,&5^  •"':'ii^  ' ■ ..  ' i 

4;>jxd  ..n  niX  tj»a  /Xlq-  ita/.,  Hat  iMbM  ; 


■IS* 


yXT^  , -■■  '»pR - , 


r^XiS^t  ' jjrlil.  \'*UuJL,-Or<v^  i 

i 1^’' ■ ■ ^ . ,■. -. 

I ■ ■■-  ■ ^ 


k 


■:j- 


'•'Jl 


fir 


. \<u..  ,j  ^ If 

' -'■■C'"  '.  ■'  ,k ’■.  Vvk-i'j  ■ ■ >'.'^.  ■'■  '"  ■ ' '' 

( ' ■ ‘ ;<S^J 


':M  :f si^« 


it‘  '.  “ ...  .^7.' 

^ fl-v,,  ■,'■ 

,(  O'd  fc^r*4' 


13 


pictures  himself  in"Praeterita. " 

Of  those  whom  he  ceime  to  kno'vv  at  Oxford,  the 
first  to  win  young  Harrison's  more  considerate  regard 
was  Richard.  Congreve,  tutor  in  history,  whose  "grasp 
of  history  was  ...  in  the  test  traditions  of  Dr. 

Arnold."  Because  of  "nis  energy,  and  his  decided  turn 
for  practical  action" , Harrison  placed  him  even  above 
Professor  Jowett  and  MarH  Pattison.  Harrison  undoubtedly 
was  Influenced  by  the  older  man,  but  repudiates  any  sug- 
gestion of  hero-worship  or  discipleship.  Wadham  was 
eminently  the  Protestant  college  at  this  time.  Harrison, 
as  we  would  expect  of  the  son  of  a strict  High  church 
family,  was  numbered  among  the  small  group  of  Puseyites, 
and  rather  frowned  upon,  being  regarded  as  somewhat  eccen- 
tric. 

There  v/as,  however,  sufficient  diversity  of  opin- 
ion on  religious  matters  among  the  undergraduates  to  stim- 
ulate what  minds  represented  the  minority  opinion,  Har- 
rison recounts  long  and  heated  debates,  frequently  in  his 
own  rooms,  on  religious  and  philosophical  topics,  in  which 
G.E.  Thor ley,  E.S.  Beesley,  and  J.H.  Bridges,  the  latter 
two  of  whom  were  some  years  hence  to  be  conspicuous  co- 
worHers  with  him  in  the  Religion  of  Humanity,  took  a pro- 
minent part. 

Harrison  read  widely  during  his  years  as  an  Ox- 
ford scholar.  He  mentions,  as  important  influences  upon 
him  at  this  period  the  Bible,  Dante,  Milton,  J.H.  Newman, 


’‘.A4J‘>I«i*viw".'.  *''^ 


If ’c?(  .'f'l  a-j  ^ v.c'"  *' h 

' r^  ■ M vr  r 

■•■•#»  v^  \ 'IT'  ^0  hi.'y,  ■»’  . ' IW3iP^«’^^t*',t»*{;:.A  'E^i.!^'  ^ 

' f'  “ - ‘ . 'I  .>  . *Lj- 


•V;  N ’''  *■>  " :*Jil  ^<  ,'  -^  ' 

si|- i.'t,  f ■ ii*:Sy+';itv‘'  « tJ  LtiJH  | ^ jPj3i;'r '0  ^ C-V 

1 • ’'iiv'  L -v-vf  s 


- • '•  ii  '■  • '-r  S 

^ j ^n  . .*wlU  '*'  J ISt, 

K-'  ' _ , 1' „;jS^’; 

,-t  — -^t‘  ';JQli4  tf-^iJ-  ;1  ^■^- 


IL  ^ '•  * w ' r ’ • ^ 

';jaU4  »yw..r..  ;i  • - ,.-•1 

■ if'  ■■  ,1-  1' 


i-^'Ji  .V  -'•  M |Nh  . •■  ^-.  .>  r(ti  ' iyjkp'34  iSl^Ji''#’ 

, i'  <-'%;*  4 ‘ *1^';  ^‘*\» , * i-  '1  '>  )•  - 


» eJ. 


It  f 4^  ' 4 •-->■*.  l y*i  /jf  -iTY,' 


.'5^.it; 


•'•v.Xwfi  *%t  c - «*i;4  ‘ A^i.jivl 


f.  ' . ^ - - ■ ’ -».  ri  '.'  ■''' 


, mar, : . .. ..  ^ m..  -■£/:  -vi 


% 


^ r6»i  ■vXiuiJt.'; 


■•4'tO’^'  iJ  ^X^iixur-::^  Is'i  nt 

--■pwfcC);  ..fiiJi'  4WJ., 


; 5.  2jA^i«fc 


' '#^, 


^ J,:f  ■ 


14. 


F.D.  Maurice,  Sir  James  Stephen,  Dean  Milman,  Plato, 

Bjrron,  Tennyson,  Kehle,  Coleridge,  Carlyle,  James  Mill, 
Crete,  Lewes,  Spencer,  and  the  tv/o  Martineaus.  These 
were  the  years  in  v/hich  were  published  Kingsley • s"Alton 
Locke",  and  "Yeast",  and  Ruskln's  "Modern  Painters",  and 
the  "Seven  Lamps  of  Architecture".  They  were  all  thor- 
oughly pawed  over  at  these  undergraduate  "tea-fights". 

In  1853,  Harrison  took  an  "honorary"  fourth  class 
in  history,  contlnuJ.ng  in  residence  for  two  years  as 
Librarian  of  the  Union  and  as  fellow  and  tutor.  Then,  in 
accordance  with  his  father's  earnest  v/ish,  ne  proceeded 
to  Lincoln's  Inn,  where  he  arrived  in  November  1858,  to 
begin  tne  study  Oj.  law. 

VI. 

By  this  time,  Harrison's  religious  views  had 
departed  far  frora  tnose  of  tne  youtn  who  cajne  up  to  Oxford 
six  years  before.  The  mutation  had  been  accomplished  by 
a process  of  slow,  cautious,  evolution. 

"I  remember  a conversation  I heid  with  E.S.  Beesley 
on  my  ovrn  views.  I said  that  I was  then  (a  year" 
or  so  after  I came  up  to  Oxford)  in  the  state  of 
gestation . and  that  it  would  take  me  nine  months 
oefore  i came  to  birth.  In  the  meantime  no  one 
could  know  whetner  I was  a boy  or  a girlj  and  I 
was  not  going  prematurely  to  decide  that  question'.' 

His  emanciimtion  11*0111  iniierlted  beliefs  v/as  first 

l-)Oli  iiical . As  a disclTile  of  Cobden  and  Bright  he  was  a 

hot  Radical  long  before  he  had  ceased  to  be  an  ardent 

Christian.  In  tne  year  in  which  ne  attained  his  majority, 

1.  Autobiographic  Memoirs.  I-p.97. 


i 

'll  i III hlfci  rfm^m 

.,....'  '■  .e»trrv?a«a'^ 

■\-t  r'».ii  *■••  '■V  1 ■*?•■'  ' ' • ,t''W( XfV '' V 

'1  =■•  ~ '•  ' * ^ ■ 

H^Vr.  . -■.>•-■!■•.•  ..v-;  »r^rv:-r’V 

^ ^s-'r^uk-  ' 


r*:S 


r-  iii 


y-  '*-,”‘7'  »s3fl 


% 


-\-  i. 


i ?■.-..  .,• 


L*.— -i  A ’9^i-  ^•4nAfr  . f.c 

-VT  ■ ■ ‘ \y, 

•^,i  - - - V-  ,...\, 

j-.-',  ' I ^ . i ■>'■  ''.^ 

.»  :.  «.  T ■ ■ i4  ■ % . 


i J X. 


T ^ ' 'k 

<^^r.  ' Afi: 


*.  t ■ 


‘ -I 


tri 

fe* 


■■-vD* 


i p 


■f  * 


j''  ^■{J;^'"' ' ' *V 


t%h^' 


I'r' 


- ^ ■ . ^ ■ * 1 - ■ ■ :> i‘4- n ’1^'‘;: 

^ C,'f^(#^  , • t-.4|  .X 


' » *' *i  - t *■-'-  ' - y. > Villi' ^ *i'i£^- 

4..,  ,-.  . ■ 

s...  ,.w.:  u ».  , .•■  »>  , ,if'7r*yoi<’'-' 

A'  ■ TT:...  '.. 

• ■ <;li4  ,-,.  V 3 - .isH:  '*'r..nn% 


f V 


' .1 


, f^y 

i,’-  •;-  tirj.i 


,S(,.  I • I, 


-‘-'■■"Si'--"'  ''*^.S>/;. 


♦-  ..ii  .till,  vy : .£  ^v,^^v4, 


w. 


■^4' 


1 • -‘<‘,  ' ' r -Yi  '>T  :■  ■ Br 
^•^.'  « _ .*'’  «“♦ 


15. 

he  refused  a pressing  invitation  to  Join  his  family  at 
tne  spectacle  of  the  Duhe  of  'Wellington’s  funeral  be- 
cause of  his  strong  anti-militaristic  views.  By  this 
time,  however,  his  reading  had  included  Harriet  Martin- 
eau’s  redaction  of  Comte's  positive  philosophy.  His 
remark  that  "August  Qomte  seemed  to  explain  them  all" 
(theologies)^  gives  a strong  hint  as  to  the  sex  of  the 
offspring. 

In  the  last  year  of  his  Oxford  residence,  Har- 
rison had  his  memorable  and  sole  interviev/  ¥/ith  ^omte  in 
Paris.  Comte  received  him  graciously,  and  q.uestioned 
nim  on  his  studies.  He  learned  that  Harrison  still  called 
himself  a Christian.  Finding  further,  that  his  greatest 
deficiency  was  in  the  direction  of  science  and  mathematics, 
(;iomte  exclaimed  that  that  accounted  for  his  mental  condl- 
tionl  Harrison  mentioned  several  points  in  the  positive 
system  xvhich  perplexed  him,  on  each  of  which  Comte  "spoke 
for  ten  minutes  or  more  with  extreme  volubility,  precision, 
and  brilliance,  and  at  a pause,  asked  me  if  he  should  con- 

p 

tinue  this  topic  or  pass  to  another".  Comte" spoke  en- 
tirely as  a philosopher  — much  as  J.S.  Mill  would  speak  - 
not  at  all  as  a priest."  Harrison  was  at  this  time  fully 
convinced  of  the  validity  of. the  arguments  of  the  philoso- 
phy of  experience  as  against  those  of  the  intuitional 
school,  and  accepted  Comte’s  viev;  of  history  and  society 
without,  as  yet,  applying  it  to  religion. 

1.  Ibid.  I -96. 

2.  Ibid.  I -98. 


W 9 L. -\./  .:  *-.  ' Xlz  “ 


. ‘ ' ' '■  ‘ ■ ' - 

• i ■ ;‘-Dti4* '/*;.-*  in bi^i  t. : -'4 


. _ Kv  ''  T J'  , ,,  * *"  , ,',  ^ ■ 

^ '•■in,,  ■ '’X/.4  n VtS' 


f .V-  ,:  --.i,*'  .•’*  i.  * •■  4-.'*  fip 

i ’' ' ■•■'V  ^ ‘ i"’'‘..  .VUKSiHt  'i^l;  ’ .^'iillKfl 


^ •' r ■-'  ^ 


F' 


-’T.-;H  , 


'’C*. 


. ,,  , f C ipsra  f'V  _ 

' 1 * *yt^  -'^  'r-  ''  * "i  ’ J&AV’J^CJ  *^>^4 

•”  [ ■■ :,  '-’^  , •''  '’,T  ' 

V^  'V  ?,r.rX  •',/ 


2^  ir<::  f:''.'iltX>ir  i ■•'*<  v'' • r,ii=-ifc'’n<2j4j^ 

■ ■’  , ' '"  'jWJi  . j _^'  . '*  t 'fc 

,»•'••  ^tUfXxii^  ~yvlw6«!n 

» W_,r.  Tjd 


,%-£>•/  i.:Uj^  ao^tin^oU  > -‘  e n j.  Tdd 


V..  .1 


■V 


C’  stB  f ■'  ;F'  1,  ;*.•'« ’ -.^Sv  ’i''!'*  >'!;i|i''  3.X  '-d'^  ■^-  -•115 — 

r'fw-'  ,*'•  ■-•■  ,,  >■•  ‘.-  ■■• 

.■4..V.4  ■ '.  iV;i].4i^  -;U^ 

;r'  ..’■*  ' * 


s. :,.:  >'•  v>j;i. 


.irt 


t ‘.';7xJl  1^1.1  j . I »-'* i...' .».  o**ofti  ^.’v 

■ -TT  n 


'y.;  j,  b[  ' ' ’ ' '.  , ■ ' ^ „,.  :•  ' , ; ■ j t , . ' ',,.  ’..-'  ‘'■■•'*  i> 


•’  ' < I '1'  > 'i('’  ■ Xj,'  ‘ -f  f "*  ' 'ip 

■ " '•-M'  ' —HjWj:';  s-ss-ii;# 

:>  n, '.„'Jt:*i  ■ • '^.  •'  ■"  # #fii‘  -“SMto  : •■ 


II 


The  Middle  and  Later  Life  of  Frederic  Harrison 


I. 


Harrison's  wary  approach  to  the  law  was  not  one 
calculated  to  arouse  very  sanguine  hopes  for  his  future 
in  the  heart  of  his  practical-minded  father.  Frederic 
v/rote  to  the  elder  Harrison: 

"I  should  he  sorry  if  your  interest  in  me  led 
you  to  form  any  very  definite  plans  or  hopes 
for  me;  for  surely,  hov/ever  anxious  I may  he 
to  follow  your  wishes  — my  career  can  he  no 
other  than  my  mould  of  mind,  my  feelings,  and 
faculties  reciuire;  and  I should  he  sorry  you 
should  propose  for  me  any  result  for  which  my 
whole  nature  is  unfitted.  Yet,  whatever  it 
may  he,  and  I assure  you  it  is  a subject  On 
which  I speculate  very  little,  I trust  it  may 
not  he  altogether  useless  or  unhappy.  Every- 
thing tends  to  confirm  my  original  plan  of 
taking  the  har.  But  I hope  you  will  not  form 
expectations  too  definite,  remember ing  the 
somewhat  gueer  fancies  I have  got  in  my  head." 

Indeed,  it  was  less  with  the  resolve  to  succeed  in  a 
legal  career,  than  the  determination  to  amend  the  de- 
ficiencies of  his  education  as  pointed  out  by  Auguste 
Comte,  which  actuated  Harrison  at  this  time.  He  ad- 
dressed himself  grimly  to  elementary  textbooks  on  astron- 
omy, geology,  physics,  and  biology;  attended  lectures  by 
Richard  Owen,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  Livering;  studied  anatonom- 
ical  collections  in  the  British  Museum,  and  dipped  into 
fat  medical  encyclopoedias.  Harrison  enumerates  two  im- 


1.  Aut Ohio graph is  Memoirs.  I - 141. 


.i 


''.'J'T 


f^i:^*-'-  : *•  o :'J 


■«'i. 


“B?' ?'■■'■■■  ■ 


".Sj-  * i 


rrav 


N 


I 


* 


. Ui.  i^'  i:>%  \ 


"*■  ; xi  z.'wnjf' i'- 
t i t«^f 'iJ'i .>  t.  -;o ^ ^ B . ' -ti  i».u‘kf  '-ftt*  V *iw' 


•vVa ' 


_.  li 


to 


.4  M I.*4-  t.*4^•n^l.>.l^^^^‘J^/£,^V,  . 


if^l 


, , • »ia  - 

*'  r ^ ■ '-^  ■ T r;„5\  ."■ 

‘ »*A  R:‘";«A  ^v>  ^iVXX^  X - --.. 


•1 

I; 


i/u  •,.-  •■  I ^ '^jr*.;;  w *v.  \n  *x^V 

o ; O'.  *-.  :'.-,-:.'%''4.  — •.  ■•  'i':,y. 

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17 


portfeurt  benefits  which  he  incurred  in  this  study:  It  ac-’u 

q.uainted  him  iilth  Comte's  classif icatiD  n of  the  sciences. 

Furthermore,  he  "was  saved  first  from  a pedantic 

specialism;  ...  secondly,  from  the  presumptions  folly  of 
attempting  to  settle  ultimate  principles  by  vague  hy- 
potheses and  so-called  intuitions,  without  even  an  elemen- 
tary conception  of  true  physical  law."  The  latter  half 
of  this  remark  gives  out  the  motive  of  all  his  subsequent 
teaching,  and  defines  an  attitude  of  mind  fundamental  to 
his  thinking. 

This  formidable  program  of  self-development^we 
may  easily  bell eve_^" cruelly  interfered"  with  Harrison's 
legal  studies,  nor  in  truth  was  his  attitude  toward  his 
profession  propitiatory. 

"I  took  an  invincible  antipathy  to  the  whole  con- 
veyancing trade.  In  1855  it  was  a Jungle  of 
antiquated  fooleries  kept  up  by  the  pedantry 
and  the  interest  of  those  who  profited  by  it. 

I never  even  could  bring  myself  to  take  inter- 
est in  the  absurd  artifices  of  its  cumbrous 
style  (though  it  had  a style  of  its  own),  and 
I confess  I looked  with  undisguised  contempt 
on  the  pundits  who  took  interest  in  it  for  its 
own  sake,  aS  the  excellent  J.  Williams  cer- 
tainly did."^ 

Harrison  continued  diligently  to  neglect  the  law  for 
history  and  philosophy.  He  Joined  the  Working  Men's 
College,  of  which,  at  this  time,  F.D.  Maurice  was  pres- 
ident, and  which  numbered  Kingsley,  and  Ruskin  among  its 
active  sponsors. 


1.  Ibid.  I - 149.  Harrison  was  a pupil  of  Joshua  Williams 
at  Lincoln's  Inn. 


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18. 


II. 

Harrison  attended  regularly  the  sermons  of 
Maurice  at  Lincoln's  Inn  Chapel.  He  credits  Maurice  with 
having  achieved  his  definite  and  final  ahandonment  of  orth- 
odox faith  by  presenting  eloquently  and  forcefully  the 
narrow,  sensuous,  revolting  side  of  the  Old  <pestament,  — 
the  fire  of  Hell,  and  the  absurdity  of  the  Atonement — 
and  then  interpreting  them  "in  a purely  Pickwickian  sense". 
"He  was  a good  dear  creature,  with  a sympathetic  nature 
and  a really  strong  moral  sense",  wrote  Harrison  with  a 
slight  tincture  of  patronage,  but  "a  more  utterly  muddle- 
headed  and  impotent  mind  I have  never  known" . After 
marshalling  every  moral  objection  to  the  orthodox  scheme 
of  salvation,  "he  v/ould  break  into  a purile  non  sequitur 
that  we  must  take  it  all  down  for  the  sake  of  the  beauty 
of  Christ's  mission,  etc.  Credo  quia  imuosslble  was  his 
motto  and  eternal  refrain." 

Harrison's  intimacy  with  j^ichard  Congreve  con- 
tinued during  these  years,  while  they  both  gravitated 
slowly  to'ward  Positivism.  This  association  ivas  not 
v/ithout  significance  to  Maurice,  in  his  memoirs  Harrison 
wrote, 

"He  treated  me  well  personally;  but  I fancied 
that  he  had  a real  horror  and  even  a nervous 
dread  of  me,  whom  he  looked  on  as  a sort  of 
emissary  of  R.  Congreve,  i.e,  of  the  Devil. 


1.  Ibid.  1-151. 


, _ » 

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After  three  years  study,  in  1858,  Harrison  having 
’’picked  up  enough  law  to  carry  me  on  decently  through  a 
mortgage,  or  will,  or  the  pleadings  of  an  equity  suit”, 
was”called”  to  the  "bar.  He  summarizes  his  situation  at 
this  time  with  mellow  irony. 


”I  was  now  twenty-six,  and  I fear  aimless  and 
useless.  Having  a modest  income  axld  no  am- 
bition of  any  kind,  I had  no  particular  aim 
in  life,  except  to  improve  myself,  and  make 
up  my  own  mind . ” 1 


It  was,  as  Harrison  himself  noted,  a slow  process. 
There  were,  hov/ever,  signs  of  something  stirring. 


”In  the  seven  years  that  had  passed  since  I 
took  my  degree,  I had  become  rooted  in  a 
conviction  of  the  universal  reign  of  Law, 
of  the  possihility  of  a real  Social  science, 
and  in  Comte’s  scheme  of  historical  evolution.”^ 

His  acquaintanceship  was  widening;  he  was  forming  con- 
tacts which  were  to  he  important  later  in  life. 


"At  the  house  of  Richard  Congreve  I made  the 
acquaintance  of  f^eorge  Rliot  and  of  George 
Henry  Lewes.  At  the  house  of  john  Chapman, 
;p;ditor  of  the”Westminster  Review" , I made 
the  acquaintance  of  Francis  Hewi'aan,  Herbert 
Spencer,  R.W.  Mackay,  and  other  writers  in 
tne  •‘Review".’’’^ 


Harrison’s  social-mindedness  manifested  itself 
in  his  continued  concern  for  the  welfare  of  the  Working 
Men’s  College,  which  he  describes  as  flourishing  "on 


1. Ibid. .1-153 

S.  The  Creed  of  a Layman.  II. Y.  1907.  p.S8. 
3.  The  Creed  of  a Layman,  p.22 


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20 


the  basis  or  the  Christian  Socialism  ox  Maurice  and  the 
muscular  pnristianity  of  Tom  Hughes,  as  a useful  and 
well-conducted  school  of  secondary  education  on  the  es- 
tablished and  moderate  lines,  with  some  Christianity, 
a little  arm-chair  Socialism,  and  a mild  infusion  of  real 
working  men."^  His  allegiance  to  the  liberal  thought  of 
the  day  became  complete  between  1853,  when  he  left  Oxford, 
and  1860.  It  is  instructive  to  study  his  position  in 
the  light  of  the  political  movements  of  the  times,  as 
that  of  a typical  liberal. 

The  Crimean  War  roused  Harrison  to  vehement 
protest.  He  tried  to  get  up  a debate  in  the  Oxford  Union 
on  the  subject.  In  1855  he  reacted  violently  and  anti- 
pathetically  to  Tennyson' s"Maud" . "The  appeals  to  patriot- 
ism", he  wrote,  "are  intsrv/oven  with  an  unworthy  philos- 
ophy. Admitting  the  wild  music  of  many  stanzas,  they 
trench  on  the  spasmodic  school."  John  Bright  won  the 
enthusiastic  approval  of  the  pacifistic  young  Oxford  rad- 
icals by  his  eloquent  speeches  against  the  war.  "Every 
day  I admire  that  man  more",  Harrison  vvrote  ah*ter  learn- 
ing how  Bright  held  Parliament  spellbound  by  his  great 
speech  of  February,  1855. 

During  the  political  Juggling  of  the  war  minis- 
tries, Harrison  nourished  the  hope  that  out  of  it  all 

would  come  one  great  good,  an  opportunity  for  the 

principles  of  moral  suasion  to  assert  themselves.  "I 

1. Autobiographic  Memoirs.  1-159. 


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21 


see  the  rise  or  a real  People’s  party",  ne  ivrote  to  a 
friend.  "The  really  honourable  contest  is  this  moment 
beginning,  numbers  against  property,  that  is  man  against 
things,  in  which  the  true  appeal  to  the  individual’s 
moral  responsibility  comes  into  light. 

Louis  Napoleon  and  the  j^npress  Eugenie  presented 
France  with  a son  in  March,  1856.  The  news,  with  its 
sinister  possibility  of  fixing  the  succession  and  pro- 
longing the  Napoleonic  despotism,  caused  Harrison  to 
take  up  his  pen  in  an  apprehensive,  furious  mood. 

"This  young  serpent  who  has  just  been  hatched 
into  this  troubled  7/or  Id  is  sure  to  wriggle 
into  some  place  v/here  he  can  be  mischievous 
some  thirty  years  hence,  unless  the  French 
manage  to  scotch  the  whole  nest  at  once." 

The  hope,  so  far  as  the  uni'ortunate  babe  was  concerneci, 

was  almost  prophetic.  The  young  prince’s  career  was 

ended  in  his  twenty -third  year  by  a Zulu  assegai. 

Harrison’s  views  on  British  imperialism  and 

the  white  man’s  burden  were  stated  passionately  on  the 

occasion  of  the  outbreak  of  the  Sepoy  rebellion  in  1857. 

He  tells  us  in  his  autobiography  "I  wrote  furious  letters 

to  any  friend  v/ho  talked  to  me  about  'the  mission  of  the 

Anglo-Saxon  race’,  'the  inferiority  of  Orientals',  'the 

boon  of  British  civilization',  'the  value  of  the  modern 

coirjmercial  spirit.'"  Harrison  was  pessimistic  about  the 

1.  Autobiographic  Memoirs.  1-165 

2.  Ibid.  1-169. ■ 


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22 


whole  British  regime  in  India,,  He  thought  the  hope  of 
the  assimilation  of  Western  culture  by  an  eastern  people 
a vague,  delusive  dream.  He  justified  his  views  on  his- 
torical grounds  with  copious  citations.  All  in  a heat,  he 
asked  in  November,  1857,  "Can  30,000  cursing  soldiers,  as 
many  lying  traders,  and  300  canting  ruissionaries,  not  fit 
for  a day  school,  overthrow  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
elaborate  of  oriental  systems?"  This  opinion  he  modified 
later  in  face  of  the  apathy  of  India,  as  a whole  tov\rard  the 
revolt,  and  the  apparent  willingness  of  the  people  to 
submit  to  British  dominion.  Harrison  remained  from  this 
time  henceforth,  however,  an  ardent  anti -imperial 1st. 

No  liberal  could  have  been  more  sincere  in  his 
sympathy  with  the  national  aspirations  of  Italy  in  1859 
than  Harrison.  He  se^  to  v/ork  with  great  energy  to  organ- 
ize an  Italian  committee  in  England  for  the  purpose  of 
arousing  and  directing  public  interest  in  the  cause  of  the 
people.  Bright,  after  being  sounded  out,  proved  tepidj 
"he  only  talks  about  ’Reform',  and  knows  nothing  of  the 
'state  of  Europe'".  Many  liberals  remained  neutral  or  hos- 
tile because  of  distrust  of  Napoleon,  parrison  did  suc- 
ceed in  interesting  Francis  Newman,  and  the  two  of  them 
together,  with  a group  of  frieiids  who  rallied  to  their 
assistance,  printed  letters  in  the  newspapers,  particular- 
ly the  London  "Daily  News",  championing  powerfully  the 
cause  of  Italy.  Their  hopes  rail  high  v;hen  Napoleon  es- 
poused it.  But  they  were  stunned  and  crushed  into  silence 
by  the  armistice  of  Villef ranee,  July  6,  1859,  which  ap- 


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^3. 

peared  at  1‘irst  blusn  to  be  notjaing  less  txian  a betrayal 
of  the  Ix-alian  cause.  Hope  revived  on  Hraneis  Joseph's 
manifesting  an  eager  desire  for  peace,  i^eeling  that 
"the  resettlement  of  Italy  would  entirely  depend  upon  the 
wisdom  and  the  energy  of  the  ItaJian  statesmien  and  the 
people,  and  to  a very  large  extent  upon  the  support  of 
England"  Harrison  wrote 

"I  now  saw  clearly  that  much  more  v/as  to  be  done 
in  ini‘luencing  public  opinion,  now  the  war  was 
for  the  moment  ended,  than  in  the  midst  of  a 
cam.pa.ign.  I made  up  my  mind  to  go  to  Italy  and 
study  the  situation  on  the  spot,  and  I left 
England  for  Turin  in  August  1659". ^ 

Armed  with  introductions  fromi  Italian  republicans 
in  London,  English  Italianissimi,  and  the  credentials  of 
several  London  newspapers,  Harrison  invaded  Italy,  visit- 
ing Genoa,  Leghorn,  Elorence,  and  the  towns  of  Tuscany, 
Bologna,  Ravenna,  Parma,  Milan  and  Lugano.  His  letters  to 
the  London  "Post"  and  the  "Hews"  during  Septemiber  and 
October  were  very  favourably  received,  and,  due  to  the 
exceptional  ox^portunities  he  enjoyed,  embodied  the  most 
authentic  information  sent  out  of  Italy  during  the  event- 
ful fall  of  1859. 

III. 

V7e  may  conveniently  date  Harrison's  comiplete 
adhesion  to  the  positivist  philosophy  from  January  1, 

1861,  when  he  was  thirty  years  old,  just  beginning  his 
practice  at  Lincoln's  Inn.  On  that  date  he  confided  to 
his  diary  a complete  summary  of  his  philosophic  beliefs 

1.  Ibid.  Auto.  1-192. 


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fijfff-Mii  I -^"tiMii:  l^|l^B  ^■MirigitrtMBi-- ,_  '"i  '<••  ^ . 


24 


8.nd  religious  aspirations.  The  coni'ession  of  faith  began 
with  the  declaration  "I  believe  that  before  all  things 
needful,  by  an<iall  else  is  true  religion”,  continued 
through  an  agnostic  deinolition  of  orthodox  Christianity, 
to  an  exposition  of  the  positivist  solution  — "to  live 
for  others;”  Positivism,  as  Ha^^rieion  insisted  with  fre- 
(luent  and  eloc[uent  iteration  throughout  his  life,  explains 
everything. 

"positivism  aims  at  being  comprehensive,  com- 
plete, and  synthetic.  It  is  at  once  a scheme 
of  Mucation,  a form  of  I^eligion,  a school  of 
Philosophy,  a method  of  dovernment,  and  a phase 
of  Socialism. 

From  this  time  forv/ard,  the  v^orks  of  Comte  occupied  a 
centred,  position  in  his  studies;  pr.  Congreve’s  trans- 
lation of  the  "Catechism",  fr.  Bridges*  translation  of 
the  "General  View",  the  "Positive  Polity",  the  "Positive 
Philosophy",  "Popular  Astronomy",  and  the  "Subjective 
Synthesis".  He  studied  the  books  of  the  Positivist  Library, 
and  surrounded  himself  with  a great  number  of  engraved 
portraits  of  the  Su^ints  of  huBianity  included  in  the  Pos- 
itivist calendar,  v/ith  a small  gallery  of  busts  of  Posi- 
tivist heroes  intercalated.  In  this  congenial  atruosphere 
Harrison  formulated  his  views  in  detail  on  education,  soc- 
iology, economics,  polities,  philosophy,  metaphysics,  re- 
ligion, science,  history,  literature,  guided  always  by  the 
tutelary  spirit  of  August  Comte. 

l.The  Philosophy  of  comjnon  Sense.  H.Y.  1907.  p.45. 


I T !^-^-ii,-1i' ho  ,c^ tiiH  •'  ■:  “ '4’tf<j-<i»  *aoXx,^ f-^'i:  ■fK 

'■  ' •*  i?'  ' 1*'*'  ■'  -fSIB®?.  ’ (.'T-’  ,-  ' ' '■'*““ 


vV  -rnu  'n^  A 


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£' 


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■ ■ 'i  ’ ?»*■' 


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,:L  -..■  ■■  <!.'?■’  ' jyi  if 

,j*^>u-4T  .,  ;--•,  ,tM.  ' ■ ' -'  -V  'i^it  -.'StaBL 

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■'irit  ' <l4l^'l}'iil9felifit  > . '’.A,,  k-  4'  \ .TT  ..'I'l?'  .;  !i  fTI/  .(v"'^’.  iV. 


25. 


IV. 

Harrison  made  his  bow  to  literature  in  the 
"V/estminster  Review"  in  October,  1860,  when  he  was 
twentj''-nine  years  old,  as  the  author  of  a criticism  of 
the  faiLOUs  "Essays  and  Reviews"  (1860)  which  aroused  his 
indignation.  He  said  of  it  "The  more  I read  the  book, 
the  more  I felt  its  real  imiiortance  as  a manifesto  of 
latitudinarianism,  and  its  cynical  insincerity,  shallov/- 
ness,  and  muddle-headedness."  Harrison's  sense  of  the 
fitness  of  things  was  outraged  by  the  spectacle  which  pre- 
sented itself  to  him  from  all  sides,  of  men  who  in  their 
private  minds  partially  or  wholly  repudiated  Christianity, 
remiaining  tranquilly,  and  he  felt  cynically,  in  their  pul- 
pits. "I  had  heard  Maurice,  Mansel,  H.  Bristow  Wilson, 
and  Benjamin  Jowett",he  virrote,  "propound  from  the  pulpit 
what  I felt,  and  still  feel,  to  be  radical  rejection  of 
the  forrual  creeds  and  Articles  of  religion."^  Dr.  Joihi 
Chapman,  editor  of  the  "Vifestminster  Review^",  previously 
mentioned  as  an  associate  of  Harrison's  at  this  time,  con- 
sented to  publish  an  article  on  the  subject.  Harrison 
set  to  v/ork  on  a criticism  of  the  seven  essa,ylsts  of  the 
"Essays  and  Reviews",  designed  to  exhibit  them  as  dishon- 
est and  insincere,  equlvocators  v/ho  enunciated  important 
priiiciples,  pressed  them  as  far  as  expediency  and  v/hatever 
tincture  of  orthodoxy  they  still  retained  would  allov/,  and 
then  dropped  them  incontinently.  Harrison  in  his  essay 

l.The  preed  of  a Layman,  p.27 


A" 


’■^4  '■ 

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-:.-^  ■' : u Ijc.'  ^ « -.ne*n'  *'■■ 


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■jzj:.. ‘.  - ;v  ■ vjTi^ia 


' >f-  ^ i •■ 

•I  . !► 


lo  ,-:*ii'.  j 

kV  3W^-4^';a  r 


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J-'-;  ..  , 

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*> 

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A i _ ' "'j  ^jQ  . ■ ‘ ■-V,' ^»iS 


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‘ ,^tJ‘  I T jV  ♦ 4^  p»/m  ^ 


26. 


undertool:  to  press  their  conclusions  to  their  logical 
limits,  and  to  demonstrate  them  as  being  the  latest  and 
most  current  form  of  infidelity.  The  article  occupied 
him  about  two  weeks. 

"I  wrote  furlouslj'',  neither  pausing  nor  correct- 
ing, at  the  rate  of  five  or  six  pages  of  print 
per  diem.  In  its  original  state  it  was  quite 
one-third  longer  than  in  print.  I remember 
that  I v/rote  it  with  passion,  without  any  ’fair 
copy’,  without  notes,  and  that  the  majority  of 
the  pages  were  without  erasure  or  change  of  v^ord. 

I w^rote  the  whole  under  violent  excitement,  look- 
ing on  it  as  a mblic  duty,  and  not  doubting 
that  its  publication  would  cause  my  expulsion 
from  Oxford,  and  perhaps  my  ostracism  in  clerical 
society.  Chapman  came  down  to  Eden  park  to  read 
the  MSS.,  with  v/hioh  he  v/as  delighted,  as  also 
with  the  title  --  lleo-Ghristianlty  — a new 
word  which  I claim  to  nave  added  to  the  language."^ 

The  "Essays  and  Reviews"  fell  flat  for  the  first 
few  months  after  their  appearance.  Oxford  v/as  engrossed 
with  Darwin’s  "Origin  of  Species"  (1859);  the  reviews 
were  busy  with  the  excising  controversies  which  clustered 
round  this  celebrated  book.  In  fact,  the  effect  of  the 
manif'esto  which  the  "septem  contra  f idem"  Issued  so 
daringly  in  the  cause  of  liberal  religion  was  decidedly 
anticlimactie.  But  with  the  publication  of  Harrison’s 
article,  the  essays  achieved  immediate  prominence  in  the 
minds  of  the  clergy,  and  in  the  various  reviews,  which 
vied  with  one  another  in  expressions. of  approval  and 
violent  opposition.  Harrison  undoubtedly  scored  heavily 
in  his  first  entry  into  the  arena  of  religious  controversy, 
as  a subsequent  historian  of  }5;nglish  raticnallsni  has  noted. 


Autobiographic  Memoirs.  I.  pp.  206-07. 


I 


'• .’  •:■'  r*!  " ••‘•v'”’'-  V' '■■...“^rirv'-t7-^wv-.; ,;s"-|.' 

■/  .<‘^.  j-  . C-'  '-".I"  '*^1»'*v«ir ^ -‘lif 

*£♦  craia-u  ■Mr<^  ■ . -yl^H-tnh 

\ ' '*  .,,  A ''*Jf  f 

.f<a  ■ ■ .nsf^r . ■ 

‘ ^ '■  ' ' ' ^ ^ <^t:. . : •’■ 

i-T.- '*•''  n' 

, i-  •(,.  - ,■'  'T^/V 


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T V ' ' J' 


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• ■•■  ■' ; A (.  :■'  ■■  4 ■ S«*5^:  ■ 

^ '.  ,-..r4va'\Ar 

■v;i'  .^Gi  .1  ■ 

. .sri*-  , ^ r-  „ r ;' 

. I l^'yfti':'.  .■:  f.'4 

!■  ■ > ''  ...•,  /’  * it-:  ‘ ' <W,-V.  . ’ • ,’.  ! ' ’ \v,!lli?V^i.j-"'^  -V'^ 

,»Ii  ■'.  iAi*V.f«a^  I V^.•  ..1.-.  • ...i  '.'.Ij  . . ,7,  '.  ,4,4:.  , .n'i.  T -.  ..  ■CWl^  , .'■‘'ift. 


>vi 


W.A 


'.'  .S'' 


!•  '"'  '•^  .V7''^V 

i »iaS^'^'  <"  ■ ■*  'kMi&ima  J 


27 


"Sharing  to  all  appearances,  the  conviction 
of  his  great  master  that  Christianity  as  the 
ultimate  form  of  theology  is  rapidly  approach- 
ing its  extinction,  he  welcomes  and  proclaims 
the  unexpected  help  supplied  by  its  accredited 
teachers  toward  the  work  of  demolition.  All 
their  reticences  are  forced,  and  all  their 
evasions  cut  off."  ^ 


Harrison  undoubtedly  took  a very  tenable 
position  in  regard  to  the  voliune  produced  by  the  Septe^, 
There  is  to  be  noticed  in  this  connection,  hov/ever,  the 
appearance  of  what  was  to  be  ever  an  attendant  evil  and 
a weakness  of  Harrison’s  v^riting.  In  his  anxiety  to 
make  his  point,  and  because  of  the  frenzied  energy  v/hieh 
animated  him  as  he  wrote,  he  frequently  sinned  in  claim- 
ing too  much  and  granting  too  little. 

"They  profess,  indeed,"  he  delcared,  "to  come 
forward  as  defenders  of  the  creeds  against 
attacks  from  without;  but  their  hardest  blows 
fall  not  on  the  assaulting,  but  on  the  resisting 
force."  2 

This  remark,  suggesting  as  it  does  by  delicate  innuendo, 
that  there  is  very  likely  a wide  divergence  between  their 
profession  and  their  actual  intentions,  is  sceo’cely  just. 
It  v/as  certainly  unwarranted,  llor  was  Harrison  in  a 
position  to  defend  the  assertion  in  the  same  paragraph 
tnat 

"In  object,  in  spirit,  and  in  method,  in  details 
no  less  than  in  general  design  — this  book  is 
Incompatible  mlth  the  religious  belief  of  the 
mass  of  the  Christian  public,  and  the  broad 
principles  on  which  the  Protestantism  of  Eng- 
lishmen rests."  3 


1.  The  History  of  English  Rationalism  in  the  Ilneteenth 
Century.  A.W.  Benn.  London.  1906.  2 v.  v.2  pp.  127-28. 

2.  The  0reed  of  a Layman,  p.95. 

3.  Ibid,  -p.  95. 


i : ■..-V'l  tv.  iSti  o-.|  Ir .iwf. 

ff . ” *:'.|WI21,  ..  ' '.'..a  • '' 


1 1'-;*  iit  • ^SkhKtksu 


T M*-’ 


-■u,.  arx 


? !p*' 


'“A  i 't*ixi K' 2i^ii jdi 

' ©uiftix 


^i*’ 


X ':-?v  M T',/;  V -/i 


17-ia "’  ■*  ■■■  ;*e 

* ^u X ( _ ’ .t X 

•it  ^..4 i 1 ' 

*’  *’’  -M  ‘ ' ''-J * •■  ■ - .'  ■ ^ 


:V 


tl 


’V4^ 


r«  I'*:  'K^  i;' 

p 1'^'  I . ^.•.  . □•-  ■ , \*'-qy 

if  ■ , t ■'  “'■  '■*  S ,i4  •• 


*■ ' \ 


•«!‘|  ''.^/v 


i>  - , ■ •3^;. 


..Si' 


if" 

At 


28 


V/hen  we  run  over  the  names  of  those  who  brought  out  the 
volume;  Benjamin  Jowett,  Regius  Professor  of  Greek  at 
Oxford,  Henry  Bristow  Wilson,  former  Bampton  Lecturer, 
who  had  held  a college  living  in  Huntingdonshire,  Dr. 
Rowland  Williams,  Vice-President  and  Professor  of  Hebrew 
at  Lampeter,  and  former  fellov/  and  tutor  at  King’s  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  Charles  Goodwin,  a Cambridge  laymajri, 
Baden  Powell,  Savilian  Professor  of  Geometry  at  Oxford, 
Mark  Pattison,  who  had  been  a tutor  at  Oriel,  and  who 
became  aector  of  Lincoln  College  in  1861,  and  Frederick 
Temple,  Headmaster  at  Rugby,  and  a future  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  it  is  hard  to  think  of  them  as  avowed  icono- 
clasts whose  object,  spirit,  and  method  were  bent  on  dem- 
olishing "the  broad  principles  on  which  the  Protestantism 
of  Englishmen  rests."  Wnatever  subsecLuent  alterations  of 
opinion  these  men  may  have  undergone  (Pattison  died  an 
agnostic) , there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  but  that  they 
wrote  sincerely,  atteiripti ng  to  find  the  tertium  quid  be- 
tween literal  inspiration  and  the  complete  doubt  by  which 
the  sceptical  criticism  of  the  day  had  undermined  the 
authenticity  of  the  Bible. 

V. 

Meanwhile  Harrison  had  succeeded,  in  "Heo- 
Christianity" , in  drawing  down  upon  himself  the  anathema 
of  some  very  distinguished  men.  Bishop  Wilberforce  of 
Oxford  in  the  "Quarterly  Review",  Charles  Kingsley  at 


4J*  ' • V ^ If  '. 


am  '-I  ■ 7 • t ,-., 

' rJiiafrtv 

- ' !■  ^ .^  . ’ "'■■¥' ■I'l'  / ■'  ,.  , -Ji! 

:,  ■ ;.y  ■ .;'yy  !*'*■»■*■  ■'^:'  ~ ‘ 

" ' ■'>■’"  f V ; . •-■v«-  '••ilRt-.v.  h’ 'VW. , . ..'-41  . 1 vJ  ;CJl’ 

iJ  ^;,  ^,'  XUi  rf, 


- J^' 

< .^t*',..---**  . ■-■M-  •*5»  .•>  ■' 


...  , m . 

i1  ' i;  I'i'Vtf,';  . ■ J> 

•I'  '•, ' • ’ ’■''  jf 

;i  '.A  v*iS:  U>i*v  ,1i!' „^‘:o 

if  ‘ V «'  '*  ' , * 

•"  » \r  >»•/  ^i: V 


\ 


# 


jl'  ^ X.-*.'  • ib.u\  J7/T.  ;:'ir  . < 


.?*  -W:.  ♦ 


y : • '■  .*'  p j tt  it  -7  i.  ► 

j : f ■■ " 

iu 


; u 


' ji.^---'  .-r  . '...-t  a.' 


•A;. 


^^Ari 


-.'V*: 

’if 

J!‘J  , 


■■  ■ •■'.‘*'’*71  'i*  ?■•■  '''j  v"' 

. ...  . :.  .^:-4  ^ 

L-.)  .■’’  '• .:  ••  jt  ■ ;*• . ;•'./  ' ;••.  r: 'Jr'“-4j*'*3rfi 


29 


CaiB.'bridge,  and  Goldwin  SFiith  at  Oxford,  all  denounced  the 
article,  chiefly  for  its  insistence  on  "the  idea  of  Law  as 
permeating  social  equally  with  physical  facts",  as  in  such 
passages  as  this; 

"Step  hy  step  the  notion  of  evolution  by  law 
is  transforming  the  whole  field  of  our  kno7»r- 
ledge  and  opinion.  It  is  not  one  order  of 
conception  which  comes  under  its  influence, 
but  it  is  the  whole  sphere  of  our  ideas,  and 
with  them  the  v/hole  system  of  our  action  and 
conduct,  hot  the  physical  world  alone  is 
now  the  domain  of  inductive  science,  but  the 
moral,  the  intellectual,  and  the  spiritual 
are  being  added  to  its  empire."  ^ 


This  of  course  was  arraiitly  Comtian,  and  heretical  b eyond 
the  assimilative  powers  of  the  broadest  churchman.  The 
occasion  seemed  auspicious  for  a spirited  defense  of  the 
principle  of  law  in  the  universe,  as  discovered  (sic)  by 
Auguste  Comte.  Professor  E.S.  Beesley,  Harrison's  intim- 
ate friend,  crossed  sv;ords  with  Kingsley  in  the  "?/estminster 
Review";  Harrison  turned  his  attention  to  the  composition 
of  a reply  to  Goldwin  Smith,  refusing  "to  treat  the  uni- 
versal application  of  law  as  being  in  any  sense  a religious 
question",  or  as  "the  negation  of  the  idea  of  Providence." 
Harrison  set  about  his  task  in  thorough  fashion. 

i»The  preparation  in  reading  had  occupied  me  for 
three  or  four  months,  puring  this  time  I 
studied  Mill’s  "Logic",  J.  Bain  on  "The  Will", 
Jonathan  Edwards,  Hume's  "Essays",  Hobbes,  Spin- 
oza, Locke,  Hegel,  Montesquieu,  Comte,  Sir  W. 
Hamilton,  Thomas  Brovin,  James  Mill,  Buckle,  Sam- 
uel Clarke,  Leibnitz,  Pascal,  cornewall,  Lewis, 

G.H.  Lewes,  Hallam,  Herbert  Spencer."  ^ 


1.  Ibid.  p.  137-38. 

2.  Autobiographic  Memoirs.  I.-  p.263. 


i»'V 


■T  , 

4i  |iMp 

«I  K V ,,.  ■'. 

15 

cr 

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p«n 

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, , A|  1 < ^ ',  ■ • .. 

1 ^ 

4 

' 'n'c' 

at  a<*  ':i>'. 

t * 

' 

jspj  ’ ' 


' ’«  -Vi  *■■  * -'  ' ■'^  f i.  1 \n  i"\in 

. «!>  ••  . ..**v2'.’  “j 


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Pi  r*/ms  ' ~ *^'  ^ „r-  '■'■III 

fi'J  . ■ . - ;-.t  ' - < i->r 


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'•it*  ■- 


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■ ‘'1^  - 

-V.  : , -c  - ' A,*  ‘,f  i'lj.' 

',•  . *^  'W  ^ 

• ^ ' 'iBHiauri'' ’ ' 


-'!iw *».;.. ■*i'’i’.M^’  >v.A‘  - *.•.  ■' 


tox,‘.  ivT'*  •.-'^'ffi,  ijit'  iW’:'-  Nii A»*4Aiij§^': 

y-/l  , ... 

..-j'y  O'.'  i’.i  *.  ;4*j^f>4  imM 

■'  V ^ ^ I • '.  ^'■'  ' 

1-  . j . _ •'  I ''  ,t  . .i.-  » i«(  l‘k* if'l*  • f’.‘:-w*  ^ ■M'ti'mm.w  -jii’®* 


$p|vvv  - 

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-m 


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* •>  » •'■■»■♦-  .|'|i 


XlW^'r^y'  : ''^  f 

“ '’raiiM 


30 


The  article,  entitled  "Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  on  the  Study  of 
History"  duly  appeared  in  xhe  "V/estminster  Review",  and 
roused  in  the  Oxford  professor  "an  irritation"  which 
Harrison  assures  us  "v/as  surely  unreasonable."  He  v/rote 
another  article  suhseq.uent ly  which  he  suppressed,  so  the 
controversy  lapsed.  "I  declined  all  Invitations  to  con- 
tinue theological  criticism,  and  in  the  follov/ing  years 
I ?/as  occupied  with  law,  economics,  and  history." 

Vl. 

Harrison  had  now  reached  the  age  of  thirty 
years;  his  formal  education,  liberal  and  professional, 
was  completed;  he  had  a profession,  a comfortable  inde- 
pendent incomie,  had  published  aii  article  which  achieved  a 
peririanent  place  in  literature,  and  was  regarded  by  all  who 
knew  him  as  a promising  young  mian.  The  catalogue  of  his 
situation  and  prospects  becomes  complete  when  Harrison 
himself  adds  that  "it  was  at  this  time  that  I finally  made 
up  my  mind  hOY;  I would  arrange  my  life,"  His  diary  at  this 
period  yields  an  interesting  list  of  agenda.  Hirst  on  the 
list  comes  "Religion",  on  which  subject  he  thought  it  iii- 
cumbent  that  "the  first  object  of  thought  must  be  to  clear 

H 

up  the  mind".  Then  comes  "knov/ledge  of  the  v/orking  classes’ 
since  he  saw  rightly  that  any  sort  of  social  ameDloration 
imposed  arbitrarily,  and  from  without,  v/ould  be  nugatory. 

So  strongly  did  he  feel  this,  that  he  "resolved  to  know 
the  best  of  them  personally  as  friends,  to  feel  the  q.uality 
of  their  minds  and  hearts,  to  enter  into  their  spontaneous 


j . ^ .«  i{,iy^ftV^jy^  7yij*i  iVji^iWtf'ki^Wiifcii  lit ’ll 


' i:<r  ” . - '^  . \ ^ Vi 

Irfi'^ii'ifaii  I I ‘d  p iL  »*.X» 


'..V.-  , ... 


^ . 


.S' 


■ tv  J . v>  , r4 t^*U  ' 

\ [ \\  . . ’i  .^. 


- "'.r-ij^U', 


.‘I  ic  'U'  ,♦■ 

, ..  ■ . s ‘i.  ““  V ^ '^'|K^'-'  -'■'!' 


»;»•> ' ' ■ f'! 

ft'!  'i 


■ •' 'mmimiSIL- 


i,  ■ ,»r 


^':. 


_*«•./'./.  --t  •J«  1,  ■ ^ f.  ^ill'^'"  '‘-’*3“^'^.'  I* , -..H 

*:.u  t‘^vvpt/^1.^--  • ;.'A  . ~\  a ^ v y <.; ■*: L' 


f n 


■;,>  ’ ":'}  '^■'%  ■*' 3' 

ii* . 'r."!  u *;v’  • ' •■/  ’•  . • 

^ .-f^.  ,.I!J 

[St ‘ «a  '■  >. ^'i  ' . . % Jt  *'  ' ’i  ’Jlt'^p^  ‘tiiX.  aI 

<-'K.r'  4'i  4#|i  .♦Wijif  ^H' '4x 

, n /-•■*.  « *•«'  « ,-  ' n J?i* f :'  ■ W l3feiR  a 

. . ? ^ nfr*  .^’•^■'  -■  ' ' ;•  '‘'"'iC' .9 ^ 


■•  i 


.;m 


31. 


institutions  and  practices,  and  v/itness  by  personal  K^in- 
(luiry  the  sufferings  and  the  necessities  which  weigh  up- 
on them . " ^ 

The  classes  in  which  education  was  traditional, 
Harrison  thought,  ’’devoted  to  pedantry,  detail,  or  disi^lay'’. 
Education  for  social  betterment,  then,  would  be  tne  means 
of  their  awn  salvation,  and  the  regeneration  of  those 
"educated"  in  the  traditional  sense;  hence  the  third 
urgent  problem,  v/as  noted  in  Harrison’s  diary  as  "popular 
education" . 

"Tnere  is  needed  an  education  at  once  general, 
simple,  useful,  and  moral.  In  this  spirit  may 
it  be  my  lot  through  life,  to  attemi.pt  some- 
thing — Having  first  indeed  educated  myself."  ^ 

There  v/ere  many  other  m'leliorists  who  thought  similarly  on 

these  topics.  Their  activities  are  represented  in  the 

Wording  Men’s  College,  the  Cleveland  Street  Secular  Hall, 

Hewton  Hall,  Clifford’s  Inn,  Tonybee  Hall,  and  Rushin  Hall. 

The  last  item  of  Harrison’s  program,  neaded  "SociaJ 

Improvement",  was  subsumied  under  ten  heads: 

"¥hat  is  most  urgently  needed,  I wrote,  was  the 
sifting  of  the  great  social  evils:  as  to  — - 

1.  The  relations  of  capital  and  Labour. 

2.  The  hours  of  labour. 

3.  The  conditions  of  labour. 

4.  The  labour  of  women  and  children. 

5.  The  homes  and  lodgings  of  the  labourers. 

6.  Provision  for  paupers,  criminals,  and  sicl . 

7.  Sanitary  reform. 

8.  Domestic  improvement. 

9.  Social  intercourse  between  classes. 

10.  Sobriety,  cleanliness,  health*"  3 


1.  Ibid.  I.  - p.248. 

2.  Ibid.  I.  - P.248. 

3.  Ibid.  I.  - p. 249-50. 


32 


Harrison  seized  an  early  opportunity  that 
offered  itseli*  in  tne  follov/lng  year  to  prove  tnat  his 
sociology  was  not  purely  theoretical.  In  1861  occured  a 
great  building  trades  lockout  which  arose  out  of  agita- 
tion in  the  United  Building  Trades  for  a nine-hour  day. 

A group  of  disinterested  lawyers  and  journalists  formed 
a small  committee  on  which  Harrison  was  active,  to  Inquire 
into  and  present  to  the  public,  the  facts  of  the  dispute. 
John  Stuart  Mill,  aEiong  others,  was  invited  to  act,  but 
he  refused  to  serve  on  the  committee  v/hlch  inclined  to  a 
favourable  view  of  the  union  demands,  because  he  was  not 
at  that  time  satisfied  v;ith  the  policy  of  the  unions. 

Harrison's  inclina,tion  toward  empirical  sociology 
received  a strong  impetus  from  his  experiences  in  this  of'- 
fair.  V/ith  entirely  honest  motives  he  attended  labour 
riieetings,  talked  with  the  union  men,  installed  himself  iii 
their  confidence.  The  impressions  he  thus  gathered  be- 
came, to  a large  extent.  Incorporated  into  the  body  of  his 
opinions,  and  a part  of  his  intellectual  tissue.  Among 
them  was  a permanent  distrust  of  newspapers,  whose 
"systematic  and  Interested  misrepresentation"  of  this 
particular  case  lead  him  to  generalize  about  the  subsi- 
dized press  of  England  whenever  he  suspected  tnat  the  per- 
quisites of  "the  interests"  v/ere  at  stake.  More  important 
v/as  the  predisposition  he  gained  in  favour  of  the  fairness, 
generosity,  and  moderation  of  the  laboring  classes,  and 
sympathy  ;vlth  their  aspirations.  He  looks  askance  at  the 


33 


theorists  in  these  matters.  His  contempt  for  "the  trash 
of  political  economy"  attained  a Carlylian  vigor.  In  his 
diary  he  wrote  with  energetic  finality  under  the  date  May 
28,  1861, 

"Nothing  can  ever  he  done  in  England  in  the 
way  of  great  social  improvement  until  the 
cruel  jargon  of  the  Economists  is  discredited."^ 

adding  the  challenge  "Go  among  the  men,  and  there  learn 

the  folly  of  it hear  them  talk  of  their  own  lives  and 

xvants,  and  cease  to  speak  of  them  as  labour  machines,  and 

the  sophists'  science  is  shattered."  At  this  point  it 

will  he  seen  that  he  also  Joins  hands  with  Ruskin. 

In  the  fall  of  this  year,  Harrison  toured  the 

northern  manufacturing  tov/ns,  making  copious  notes,  and 

formulating  ideas  on  unionism,  strikes,  and  cooperation 

which  formed  the  material  for  a series  of  articles  which 

suhsequently  appeared  in  the  "fortnightly  Review".  They 

were  ultimately  included  in  his  volume  "National  and 

Social  Prohlems".  (1908). 

VII, 

I have  set  forth  the  hiographical  facts  of 
Harrison's  youth,  and  the  circumstances  of  his  intellectual 
development  thus  far,  in  such  fullness  as  is  possible  with- 
in my  limits.  I have  carried  him  to  his  maturity,  to  a 
position  of  firm  adherence  to  the  positive  philosophy,  in 
whose  tenets  his  first  article  and  last  hook  were  written. 
The  period  hitherto  treated,  while  constituting  less  than 

1.  Ibid.  I,  253.  Printed  in  italics. 


i w' fc ' . . •■»’  ..  H.’  • . 4-*f& < ’ a*.*- ' • : :. • 


;L.  i.  _,„,  '■'  •■•«KV ..i(‘ ^^.•;,  «a  ■:■.«; -i.;  3,;..  Vfl.i^;l  ■.  ‘ ' !' 

,,:jci  ij?  I l<iH  . ^>T4  t «Li^h'l^%»  t f\.  A *~ . Jk ' r,^  ^ ' ‘.•  '•it 


rvi,.  m^  'Mi:  ’'  ■'^*'i‘  ^.Ifc 

\r^'^  ..  ^/^•■i*v  .<»  U "V,>\  fv<Ht  — 

. ?' T .vCiMH 'i  ' 


1™.' 
m 


/K 


•sc 


iF" 


'Siidi 


■■•  i ,-.ir»- 


C^r; w c - ■”!:•  s • * > 


. i'?  • a i * 

■’^-*  • " , ,r-p  %v^'*  ' 

4;.i>Xw^-  t»;r.'‘»  '0f,'-%d^ 

, ■ '*,  k^'.  'f’'f 


'y 


/ .1^ 
jOJT^p ; r 

« ‘ '^’  -'•■/  jr 


.;  ■ S > . . » 


■ ' i A,  JK ;■'  *‘ 


-A?  V 

■ : • ..  ■ -1 
t(i  € * ' -<*i  U¥Ui^\\  .i-\;,  ^ :LWJL»ir : 


.i'i 

r ••  . “■ 


one  third  of  Harrison’s  life,  and  the  least  important 
third  to  the  biographer,  is,  as  that  of  his  development, 
the  most  important  of  all  for  the  purposes  of  such  a 
critical  study  as  this  pretends  to  he.  Therefore  I will 
present  the  remainder  of  the  biographical  facts  at  my 
disposal  on  a somev/hat  reduced  scale. 

The  years  1861  to  1871,  Harrison  says,  were  the 
busiest  of  his  life.  In  that  period  he  wrote  about  twenty 
articles  in  the  monthly  reviews,  on  Italy,  law,  and  the 
science  of  history,  many  of  them  making  the  exhausting 
demands  upon  him  of  high-pitched  controversy.  He  lectured 
at  the  Working  Men’s  college,  at  Cleveland  Street  Hall, 
and  at  the  first  Positivist  Hall  at  chapel  Street,  con- 
tinuing the  while  to  contribute  articles  to  the  newspapers 
on  trade-unionism.  His  investigations  into  the  industrial 
disturbances  which  these  organizations  created  from  time 
to  time  made  Harrison  a recognized  authority  on  labor 
disputes.  He  was  appointed  a member  of  the  Royal  Commission 
on  Trades-Unions,  which  functioned  in  1867-68-69.  Public 
opinion  was  bi.terly  hostile  to  the  unions  at  the  time.  The 
majority  of  the  (commission  were  orthodox  in  their  views. 
Harrison,  together  with  Lord  Litchfield  and  Thomas  Hughes, 
drew  up  a minority  report,  to  which  Harrison  prepared  a 
long  and  elaborate  appendix  ’’examining  the  whole  evidence 
and  arguing  each  point  in  proposed  legislation,”  Tills, 
Harrison  tells  us, ultimately  became  the  foundation  of  all 
subseq.uent  debates  in  Parliament  and  the  Press”,  and  "has 


35 


been  the  foundation  of  the  Trades-Union  la;//  between 
1866  and  1906'.'  He  adds  that  "it  is  probably  the  most 
permanent  work  in  which  I have  been  engaged  in  politics." 

Throughout  this  period  Harrison  was  occupied 
about  half  the  time  with  legal  work.  He  received  three 
legal  appointments  in  1869;  that  of  Examiner  to  the  Inns 
of  Court  at  Lincoln's  Inn;  Examiner  in  Jurisprudence, 

Roman  Law,  and  Constitutional  History  for  the  of 

Legal  Education;  and  secretary  to  the  Royal  Commission  for 
Digesting  the  Law. 

In  August  of  the  next  year,  Harrison  entered 
into  a legal  engagement  of  a quite  different  sort.  He 
married  his  cousin,  Ethel  Harrison,  oldest  daughter  of 
William  Harrison  of  craven  Hill  Gardens,  W.  The  ceremony 
was  celebrated  quietly  at  Christ  Church,  Lancaster  Gate, 
according  to  the  church  of  England  ritual,  no  Positivist 
ceremonies  having  at  that  time  been  adopted  in 
A three  months’  tour  on  the  Continent  followed, which  in- 
cluded in  Germany ,... Switzerland,  and  Italy  ma/iy  of  tne 
terrible  sights  which  accompanied  the  b/tter  end  of  the 
Franco -Prussian  war. 

VIII. 

V/hat  Harrison  called  "my  first  bit  of  real  travel" 
occured  in  his  twentieth  year,  when  he  made  a carefully 
studied  tour  of  Switzerland.  He  sav/  his  first  mountain 
snov/  at  Schaffhausen,  whence  Ruskin  got  his  first  rap- 
turous view  of  the  Alps;  Cologne  "tnen  a quaint  old  seven- 


I -i  : - \ 


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‘ nJi. ,-.-ITU<  •”  ■ • . f*  .-£,  - .1 


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i If  rt  -'  ;■•  ‘ ' '*  ' 

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■■fn  i , mu  v*  ii.'  ■'•  'f  y A M • '!'  ■ -Y,  '•'■•■  >15'^  ■' ta*  ' ' ■'  - / ’■R  'A-  f:  ■’ 

*•  ■ 

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36 


teenth  century  town";  Baden  and  the  Black  Forest,  the 
Rhine  Valley,  at  tnat  time  unspoiled  by  railroad  or 
factory.  Two  years  later  Frederic,  with  his  brother, 
Lawrence,  went  to  Italy,  travelling  in  the  old  style  of 
the  Italian  vettura  celebrated  with  charming  fantasy  by 
Ruskin  in  "Praeterita,"  and  more  recently  by  a younger  ad- 
mirer of  the  old  Italy,  Maurice  Hewlett  In  UThe  Road  in 
Tuscany".  At  Florence  Harrison  met  Robert  Browning,  with 
whom  he  later  was  to  become  very  intimate.  Here  he  be- 
came imbued  with  a deep  interest  in  Florentine  and  Tuscan 
art  and  history. 

in  the  interval  between  leaving  Oxford  azid  going 
into  Lincoln’s  Inn,  Harrison  visited  Berlin,  v/hich  he 
saw  again  in  1898.  It  was  on  the  latter  visit  that  he 
v/as  struck  by  the  contrast  between  the  bourgeois  eighteenth 
century  city  of  forty-three  years  earlier,  and  the  nev/ 
cosmopolis,  ~ between  the  disunity  of  tne  dozen  duchies  of 
the  older  Germany,  and  the  solidarity  and  bustling  national 
pride  of  the  parvenu  xiation,  already  "claiming  hegemony 
of  the  human  race." 

Harrison  tramped  over  his  own  English  hills  in 
1861.  He  visited  the  gumberland  lake  country,  the  York- 
shire moors,  Bolton  Abbey.  Four  to  six  weeks  were  allowed 
for  v;alking  in  the  Lake  country  or  for  Alpine  mountain- 
eering in  the  autumn  of  each  year,  during  this  middle 
period  of  Harrison’s  most  constant  and  varied  activity. 

His  less  extensive  travels  were  freq.uent  and  casual,  the 
necessary  incident  of  a busy  life.  He  was  on  tne  continent 


;i5t' 


Mi 




'Yv ' ^''  ' ’•*'* ' '■  '"" Tii^'''  ' ^‘  ' '' '* ’^^ 

'idf  m 

' ‘‘i  ■■  i ■•*  AiJj  ii'i  .'  i^  V' 4 ‘-..  • ’' ^ ■"‘''*®*1  "»-Tf  * ™ 

jri’  . ■ ^ . ' *'  ^ ■ ^ ' ■ ' "' - m^'"  ^ 

■‘*j‘“y‘  i ••:  I tt  if|o 

,t^  ■ ‘ *'X  r/  ' -«'Vi(r4T  'Sf*' 


ri 


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!♦  ;■  ■ ' ’''>®  ^ -’Vv  ' 

jl'i «‘>1i,k'^  i t*.«'  i.- i 'V /■  <:.i  -7-  ^,rn;  •iijift.! ■ 

!?*■  , c ‘J  f.  /I ! '*4 1 V * C-  ' 


37. 

very  oxten,  and  knew  Paris  well.  He  was,  of  course,  on 
intimate  terms  with  the  Paris  group  of  Positivists,  l<^d 
hy  Pierre  Lad'itte.  His  articles  on  the  Franco -Prussian 
war  brought  him  into  personal  or  epistolary  contact  with 
many  of  tne  great  men  of  the  day  in  France;  Guizot,  Jules 
Michelet,  Louis  Blanc,  Baiibetta,  T^enan,  Clemenceau,  Edouard 
Scherer,  M.  Faure,  ciit^rbuliez . In  1874  the  Harrisons  lived 
for  tv7o  montns  at  Fontainebleau.  In  October  of  this  year 
Harrison  travelled  extensively  in  the  provinces  for  the 
"Times",  narrowly  escaping  arrest  at  one  time,  because  of 
the  tone  of  his  articles,  which  were  reprinted  in  French 
nev/spapers  of  the  opposition.  With  the  exception  of  his 
visit  to  America  in  1900,  whicn  is  reserved  for  separate 
treatment,  Harrison's  remaining  travels  may  be  dismiissed 
briefly;  three  visits  to  Greece  and  Sicily;  two  to  Turkey, 
and  one  to  Egypt  between  1881  and  1910,  axid  one  to  Hollaiid 
and  Germany,  alluded  to  above,  in  1898. 

IX. 

Harrison  in  conjunction  witn  James  Bryce,  was 
appointed  by  the  gouncil  of  Legal  Education,  Professor  of 
Jurisprudence,  International  Law,  and  Constitutional  Law, 
in  1877,  in  v/hich  capacity  he  lectured  regularly  for  twelve 
years  in  the  Middle  Temple  Hall.  He  became  President  of 
■f;  the  English  Positivist  (^ommlttee  in  1878  on  the  retiremeiit 
of  pr.  Bridges,  holding  the  position  until  1904.  Efewton 
Hall  was  taken  as  the  permanent  Positivist  meeting  place 
(1881)  under  his  regime,  whose  arrangement  he  managed,  and 


Th 


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38 


whose  arfairs  he  administered  for  nearly  twenty  years. 

Harrison  stood  for  a seat  in  Parliament  for  the 
University  of  London  against  Sir  John  Lubbock  in  tne 
General  Election  of  July  1886.  The  struggle  centered 
on  Gladstone’s  Home  Rule  policy,  and  Harrison, despite  his 
disinclinat-ion  for  active  participation  in  politics,  felt 
bound,  as  an  Irish  Rationalist  of  long  standing,  to  assert 
the  principle  of  Home  Rule.  He  acted  purely  on  conviction, 
since  it  was  known  that  the  whole  of  tne  Conservative  and 
Unionist  voters  and  most  of  the  scientific  and  professional 
men  were  pledged  to  Lubbock.  Harrison  was,  as  he  antici- 
pated, snowed  under. 

The  opportunity  to  perform  public  service  in 
another  direction  was  thrust  on  Harrison  three  years  later 
when  he  was  nominated  without  warning  as  one  of  the  alder- 
men  of  the  first  county  Council  of  London.  He  accep)ted 
from  a sense  of  duty,  feeling  that  there  was  work  to  be 
done,  "and  that  it  should  be  undertaken  by  some  one  who 
felt  in  him  a keen  interest  in  getting  it  done.”  He 
served  for  five  years,  his  most  distinct  service  being  ad- 
vocacy of  an  extensive  local  improverneiit  for  the  beautifi- 
cation of  the  city^which  opened  old  decayed  districts  by 
an  extensive  system  of  new  streets. 

When  he  withdrew  from  the  Council,  Harrison  with- 
drew from  London  as  well,  taking  up  his  residence  in  Elm 
Hill,  Har;\rkhurst , where  he  devoted  himself  to  rural  oc- 
cupations. He  acted  as  county  magistrate  in  Kent,  gaining 
as  a justice  of  the  peace,  a new  insight  "into  the  Intri- 


' j<]  '‘vf^ 

,j.  • ■'/.•,»»*. i«a'%v,i't».-<#'«Vt  ''  ,<A.  iHr,  'W 


M 5fi’5''r' |(fm«'3«|»^  ■ rf;-i 

it'^  l^  1 '-.>1  Ip'^wJm 


^^71.  V •*'  v.r^w.„^.V'...  '’.1  ‘V"  »U'.,.4S 

'*  , ^ ■ .,^..Vi!^'  ■ •■‘T  At 


I, 


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• 1^ 


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I 1 ’t 


••  :.‘’A 


*i  'fV  J*-^  j- 

•.♦‘i,  ‘ 

. *;»  Kt4S  •il,/'' 

,;i,.  ''■4»4,'  * .1  ■ ; 

H;;«|  . i<;-;#-.;1>. 


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Hi'i? 


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39. 

cacies  of  English  country  life»  at  the  local  courts. 

X. 

In  1900  Harrison  was  invited  by  the  Union  Leagije 
Club  of  Chicago  to  deliver  its  annual  address  on  Washing- 
ton's birthday,  February  22,  1901.  The  invitation  was 
extended  informally  by  Joseph  H.  Choate,  United  States 
ambassador  to  Britain,  at  Cambridge,  where  he  received  the 
honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  in  1900,  the  year  in  which  Har- 
rison delivered  his  Rede  Lecture,  "Byzantine  History  in 
the  Early  Middle  Ages."^ 

Harrison  accepted  the  invitation,  and  cai^e  over  to 
see  us  in  the  following  year.  America  was  shown  to  him 
by  such  accomplished  and  cultivated  cicerones  as  Choate, 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  President  Laurence  Lowell  of  Harvard 
University,  Ai:idrew  Carnegie,  and  that  accomplished  hand 
across  the  sea,  Charles  Eliot  Horton.  These  v;ere  gentle- 
men, one  might  suppose,  to  be  trusted  to  give  Just  the 
proper  accent  to  America.  Hor  did  they  fail  in  their  ^ask. 
Harrisonwas  -whirled  westward  to  Chicago  immediately,  before 
he  had  time  to  pause  and  consider  the  astounding  warmth  of 
his  reception.  Sowell  did  his  astute  hosts  display  Chi- 
cago to  him  that  he  was  able  to  write  in  composed  retro- 
spect of  the  historical  home  of  Mammon  and  pork 

"I  heard  of  nothing  but  the  progress  of  education  , 
university  endovinraents,  people’s  institutes,  lib- 

1.  Published  under  this  title,  London,  1900 


Sr.'-'.'  ^ ,|_ 

I:  .%B>f  ' - ,-.c  j 


* « f 1[u  •/ (i-‘  ’ %if  . 

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40. 


raries,  museums,  art  schools,  workmen's 
model  dwellings  and  farms,  literary  cul- 
ture, and  scientific  foundations.  I saw 
there  one  of  the  best  equipped  and  most 
vigorous  art  schools  in  America,  one  of 
the^hest  Toynbee  Hall  settlements  in  the 
world,  and  perhaps  the  most  rapidly  developed 
university  in  existence."  ^ 


Harrison's  Washington;  speech  was  a great  suc- 
cess. It  v/as  delivered  at  the  Auditor iuia  to  five  thous- 
and people.  The  subsequent  orgy  of  felicitations, 
handshaking,  cheering,  and  reporters,  star-spangled  ban- 
ners, autographs,  and  banquets  completely  bev;ildered  the 
distinguished  Englishman  ivho  referred  disparagingly  to 

p 

himself  as  a "mere  magazine  writer".  An  American  reviev/ 
hailed  him  as  having  "excited  greater  interest  among  the 
intellectual  people  of  the  United  States"  than  any  Eng- 
lishman arrived  on  these  siiores  since  Matthew  Arnold. 

Vice  -President  Roosevelt,  just  back  from  a hunt  in  the 
Rockies,  himself,  Harrison  observed,  "very  like  a grisly 
bear",  acted  as  impressario,  escorting  Harrison  to  the 
art  galleries,  theatres,  and  club  luncheons,  at  which  he 
v/as  always  sure  of  being  called  on  for  "a  few  v/ords". 

He  wrote  to  his  wife  "Hothing  can  exceed  the  friendliness 
of  my  welcome.  If  I were  Charles  Dickens,  Herbert  Spencer, 
and  the  Prince  of  Wales  all  in  one  person,  it  could  not  be 

g 

exceeded . " 


1.  Memories  and .Thought . p.  177. 

S,  Reviev/  of  Reviews  23:558 
3.  Autobiographic  Memoirs,  11-198. 


• U h ',. : *.L .,-  IP-  . - . C ‘ / ^ .» 

y »' >4.^' r- ^ 


;>  :<  v”  '^0,V)(  ^it.M  Mifi^'<‘ ’'i'-  ' vfl'dp 

;'  i:.  - %'r^ 

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' > ^ ■'^-'•“-■■^ ' -' '•  .j6i .‘A.  V 


C r'l  ' . .. 


tH’  . I » .f..  7TI 

.<''-•  r/f  '*^:*;-  . ' '■'.•SiV; 

•*lTj».  IS  ifi*4.  * .Wi 


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41 


A week  later  Harrison  was  in  Cambridge  safely 
installed  in  tnat  hospitable  inn  for  literary  pilgrims, 
the  home  of  Charles  Eliot  ITorton,  in  the  midst  of  Tin- 
torettos, Veroneses,  Turners,  Ruskins,  books,  objects  of 
art,  and  all  the  refined  impedimenta  of  an  ancient  and 
illustrious  man  of  letters.  At  Harvard  Harrison  "harangued" 
the  University  on  his  chief  hero,  after  Comte,  King  Alfred. 
Proceeding  to  Washington,  he  witnessed  the  inauguration  of 
President  McKinley.  Washington  lionized  him.  After 
taking  out  Mrs.  Sheridan,  the  widov/  of  the  dashing  cavalry 
general  of  the  Civil  War,  at  one  of  Mr.  Chauncey  pepev/'s 
dinners,  Harrison  v/rote  happily  to  his  wife  "Certainly, 
they  do  things  well  in  Washington."  . "Eo'w  I.;, 

stood  it  I cannot  think  — oysters,  ices,  charnpagne  twice 
every  day."  Two  lectures  on  Alfred  at  Johns  Hopkins  fol- 
lowed; a visit  to  Mount  Vernon,  and  Bryn  Mavrr  where  he 
entranced  the  college  girls  v/ith  off-hand  reminiscences 
of  George  Rliot,  Ruskin,  Tennyson,  and  others.  Of  what 
all  gallant  pilgrims  concede  to  be  one  of  our  chief 
national  glories,  Harrison  writes 

"You  cannot  imagine  these  American  women  till 
you  have  seen  them  at  home.  Their  frankness, 
their  bonhommie  , their  entire  absence  of  shy- 
ness, or  timidity,  or  reticence,  or  hauteur. 
or_morgue_j_  It  is  certainly  fine.  They  say 
what  they  think  and  feel  — 'right  out'- — and^ 
are  not  a bit  ashamed  to  be  s chwarmer i s ch . " 


Ibid.  V.  II  - 205. 


Vi-.  ■ ' V 


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vj»:.  i - ‘'  fitT  m . 

®=-J-  * . ■ ••  ' ? 

■'■■•-  • -^  } ^J^(r  r '\WtBW  ^ '^MHH 

•if/  .:  ^->1  \»  if  * ^ . .' ' 

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42. 


From  Baltimore  Harrison  wrote  to  his  wife  of 
being  photographed  with  Yifilliam  Jannings  Bryaii,  the 
lately  defeated  presidential  candidate,  v/ho  was  later  to 
become,  at  the  expense  of  far  less  study  than  Harrison 
hiraself,  an  authority  on  evolution.  He  mentioned  too  the 
daily  banquets,  heaped  v/ith  "everything  I hate."  Mutton, 
not  even  cold  mutton  which  made  such  a melancholy  exis- 
tence of  Ruskin’s  boj'-hood,  he  never  saw.  Miraculously 
enough  he  could  still  add,  "but  I am  well".  Harrison 
delivered  lectures  on  Cromwell  and  the  Dutch  Republic  at 
Princeton  and  Corumbia;  paused  again  with  the  Hortons  at 
Cambridge,  and  then  took  wing  for  his  native  isle  tired, 
happy,  full  of  oysters,  champagne,  and  impressions. 

Hov;  something  as  to  the  nature  of  Harrison's  im- 
pressions. He  found  in  America  a young;  nation,  a people 
with  the  energy  of  youth,  the  highest  intelligence,  and  a 
social  and  political  system  "more  favourable  to  material 
development  than  any  society  ever  devised  by  man."  He 
predicts  for  us,  then,  enormous  material  triumphs. 

Our  characteristic  note  he  found  to  be  the  free- 
dom  of  the  individual,  the  carrlere  ouvert  aux  talents. 

The  hope  which  this  chance  opens  to  every  man  and  vjoman 
of  wnat  ne  or  she  wants,  colours  our  while  life;  all 
tilings  may  be  sought  and  found  within  our  national  bound- 
aries. 

"The  vast  continent,  with  its  varieties  of 
climate  and  soil,  produces  almost  everything  ^ 
except  champagne,  diamonds,  and  ancient  buildings," 


1.  Memoriotj  and  Thoughts,  p.  182. 


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45 


Looking  at  the  other  side  of  the  shield,  Har- 
rison entertained  some  misgivings.  Will  our  vast  pros- 
perity he  matched  hy  an  equal  expansion  in  the  social, 
intellectual,  and  moral  sphere?  Certainly  we  are  yet  far 
from  such  a balance.  Libraries,  museuras,  laboratories, 
and  a literate  public  we  have.  But  they  do  not  guarantee 
literature.  Our  huge  educational  system,  democratic,  bi- 
sexual, is  an  instrument ; we  may  be  sobered  and  chastened 
in  our  prosperity,  if  we  pause  to  reflect  on  the  quality 
of  the  product. 

Harrison's  literary  monument  to  his  American 
visit  was  entitled" George  Washington,  and  Other  American 
Addresses"  (1901).  It  included  his  Chicago  address  on 
the  Father  of  our  country,  and  the  informal t alks  he 
made  at  various  times  when  called  upon  to  furnish  remarks 
and  reminiscences.  In  the  Union  League  address  he  ap- 
proached Washington  from  the  European  point  of  viev/, 
though  in  a generous  and  sympathetic  manner,  pitching  him- 
self, as  a writer  in  the  lew  York  "Hation"  said  at  tnis 
time,  "in  a high  and  stimulating  strain."  The  same  writer 
ventured  to  msike  an  appreciative  generalization  concerning 
Harrison,  based  on  his  Bryn  Mawr  recollections  of  great 
Englishmen  of  the  nineteenth  century  whose  acquaintanceship 
he  had  enjoyed, 

"It  is  bright  and  anecdotal,  without  being 
garrulous,  and  its  frank  admiration  for  the 
best  in  human  genius  is  an  invigorating  tonic 
after  the  vile  detraction  of  contemporaries 
v;hich  is  affected  by  the  baser  journals  and 
critics,  ViThatever  else  Mr.  Harrison  may  or 
may  not  have  learned  from  the  writings  of 


. ft 

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I U‘.C«IL  . ijri.'  • •„ . ,V  . ;•  <i.v;4*ii'  4-.:^  tt 


44. 


Auguste  Comte,  he  has  been  taught  by  them 
to  revere  great  men,  and  to  worship  uhe  as-  ^ 
pirations  by  which  tne  noblest  souls  are  moved." 

XI. 

I'wo  score  years  alter  his  biblical  span  of  life 
had  elapsed,  Harrison  was  still  occupying  himself  quietly 
v/ith  the  topics  which  had  chiefly  engrossed  him  during  his 
long  life;  literature,  politics,  religion,  and  sociology. 
His  contemporaries  were  long  ago  laid  to  rest.  In  1916 
Mrs.  Harrison  died,  the  mother  of  three  sons  aiid  one 
daughter . 

Three  great  universities  of  his  native  land  had 
recognized  Harrison  in  coni'erring  upon  him  honorary  de- 
grees; from  his  alma  mater,  Oxford,  D.C.L.;  from  Cambridge, 
Litt.  D. ; from  Aberdeen,  LLD.D.  Like  an  old  man  of  the 
tribe  full  of  years  and  wisdom,  oracular  and  profoundly 
contemplative,  Harrison  uttered  his  novisslma  verba,  as 
he  ’Waited  for  whatever  Immortality  might  be  in  store  for 
him. 

Harrison’s  last  v/ords,  as  one  -would  expect,  are 
somewhat  fragmentary  in  nature,  and  diverse  in  topic. 

We  nave  here  to  notice  only,  chiefly  for  their  consis- 
tency with  certain  long  held  opinions,  some  of  Harrison’s 
pronouncements  on  the  Great  Vifar,  and  his  book,  "Hovis- 
sima  Verba"  (19S1) . 

In  the  war,  Harrison  saw  the  fruition  of  a move- 
ment dating  back  to  the  French  Revolution,  continuing  v/ith 

1.  The  Nation.  73:  474. 


45 


growing  power  -through  the  Bo^orhon  overthrovsr  of  1830,  the 
Ref  oral  Act  in  England  in  1832.,  the  European  upheaval  of  1848- 
49,  and  the  Third  French  Republic  in  187.9.  "All  these 
lead  up  to  the  vast  transformation  that  this  colossal  war 
has  mads  manifest."  It  is  a new  dawn,  greater  than  the 
Renaissance,  "more  wise  than  the  spasmodic  revolutions  in 
the  times  of  Danton  or  lapoleon,"  the  rise  of  a new  aiid 
loftier  civilization,  in  an  age  of  Industry  and  Peace. 

From  the  aloofness  of  his  old  age  he  cried  out  implacably 
against  the  German  military  caste.  The  ?/ar,  the  harvest 
of  forty  years  of  Kaisertum  and  Bismarchtum,  Harrison 
wrote^,  will  result  in  the  exclusion  of  Germany  from 
"the  Comi'ty  of  nations",  a Germany  with  crippled  industry, 
no  trade,  — and  huge  debts,  never  again  will  tne  Ger- 
man servant,  clerk,  merchant,  aiplomat  be  received  with 
trust  of  cordiality  in  England. 

By  1920,  when  "Rovissima  Verba"  v/as  v/ritten, 
Harrison  nad  abated  from  this  grim  mood.  His  agreement 
v/ith  Keynes’  famous  book,  "The  Economic  Consequences  of 
the  Peace"  is  complete,  and  entirely  reverses  the  earlier 
opinion.  Harrison  saw  that  the  treaty  of  Versailles  was 
"unworkable"  because  "the  complicated  attempt  to  make 
Germany  an  outlaw  in  inter iiational  trade  — economically 
outside  the  pale  of  civilized  nations  — is  little  more 
than  a grim  joke." 

Harrison  viev/ed  the  League  of  Nations  withe  autlonj 
if  not  actual  suspicion.  "It  seemed  to  me  to  be  premature, 

1.  The  Doom  of  Germany  after  the  War.  N.Y.  Times  Cur.  Hist. 

I III  1 I?  fat  ^ 359—60. 


r-. 


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V I . V 


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46 


— irripossllDle  in  the  actual  moral  condition  of  nations.” 

The  state  of  suspended  animation  of  fhe  government  of  the 
United  States  while  the  Senate  wrangled  over  the  reser- 
vations to  the  League  of  Nations  spelt  the  doom  of  the 
League,  and  the  paralysis  of  Europe. 

Let  us  hear  this  voice  from  the  Victorian  Age  on 
a few  other  subjects  v/hich  engross  our  twentieth  century 
intellectual s . 

"In  philosophy  the  problem  of  the  hour  is  the 
Law  of  Progress.  It  is  inevitable  that  al'ter 
a cataclysmic  epoch  of  change,  thoughtful 
minds  should  ask:  'Is  this  Progress?"' 

With  clear  steadiness  of  view,  Harrison  avoids  coruusion 
of  change  v/ith  progress.  Our  chances,  however,  should 
stimulate  our  best  endeavor,  he  believed,  and  reiterates 
the  Positivist  hope  of  eluding  our  human  limitations  by 
faith,  science,  and  moral  energy,  tiwe  are  meliorists, 
not  optimists.  We  trust  that  Man  cen  better  himself  and 
his  earth,  but  has  no  automatic  perfectibility  to  look  to." 

Let  me  present  a few  random  dicta  as  envoy : 
Harrison  welcomes  Einstein  as  one  who  gives  aiiother  boost 
to  the  philosophy  of  the  relative;  he  speaks  of  the  charm, 
sympathy,  and  "inexhaustible  spirit  of  subtle  observation" 
of  the  recently-published  Letters  of  Henry  Jamies,  in  "this 
age  of  caricatures,  diaries,  and  ahominahle  indiscretions"; 
he  outrages  the  Zionists  and  Mr.  Israel  Zangvirill  by  ridi- 
culing the  idea  of  a Jewish  nation  ; ne  joins  in  v/,ith  the 
"home  thrusts  at  credulity  and  ignorance"  of  pean  Inge^, 

1.  The  Idea  of  Progress.  By  pean  Inge.  London,  1919, 
Outspoken  Essays.  By  pean  Inge,  London,  1919. 


II 


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47. 


because  "in  such  times  as  ours,  what  we  want  are  true 
things,  however  hard." 

"It  is  a hopeful  sign  to  find  a popular  Prela.te 
of  our  ancient  ghurch  attacking  v;ith  resolute 
vigour  and  in  a scientific  spirit  such  complex 
social  problems  as  Population,  the  statistics  of 
birth  and  maternity,  the  future  of  i.our  Race, 
Emigration,  the  Empire,  Patriotism  and  inter- 
national Brotherhood.  Vfhat  popular  catchv/ords, 
what  favorite  nostrums,  and  mendacious  fallacies 
are  cut  to  the  bone  by  the  Dean’s  masterly  use 
of  tne  logical  knife  1 Withal,  he  speaks  as  a 
priest  should,  his  scientific  knowledge  infused 
with  religion  as ‘well  as  morality.  There  is 
nothing  in  it  of  the  vagueness  of  the  popular 
sermon,  Of  the  sentimentalism  of  the  philanthro- 
pist. It  is  the  voice  of  a thinker  on  society 
v/ho  is  not  afraid  totell  truths  to  v/hlch  the 
ignorant  masses  are  blind,  and  which  the  exper- 
ienced are  apt  to  conceal  or  disguise."  ^ 

And  YiO'N  let  us  leave  him:  "Here,  down  in  Bath,  I try  to 

possess  my  soul  in  peace  with  lav/,  philosophy,  and  books 

of  the  day . " 


1.  Hovissims  Verba.  il.Y.  1921.  p.  17. 


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48 


III 

The  Positive  Synthesis  of  Human  Life 

I. 

There  has  been  no  more  interesting  manifestation 
of  the  revival  of  humanism  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
scare (3ly  one  so  adequate,  as  the  books  of  Frederic  Har- 
rison, particularly  those  which  set  forth  his  philosophic 
scheme  ojrid  sociel  program,  in  the  works  of  Harrison  v/e 
have  expressed  most  vitally  the  inner  life  of  positivism, 
a movement  which  v/as  characteristic  of  a certain  phase  of 
cultiV0.ted  thought  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Like  the 
penalssance  humanist,  the  positivist  is  inteiosely  in- 
terested in  the  world  about  himj  unlike  him  he  does  not 
seek  to  harmonize  the  Bible  and  the  classics  as  a code 
of  ethics,  but  rejects  the  former  as  an  article  of  faith, 
and  the  latter  as  the  material  for  a complete,  sufficient 
education;  accepting  both,  rather,  as  having  the  char- 
acter of  monuments  of  the  human  spirit,  erected  in  the 
great  mioments  of  our  civilization,  to  be  revered  for  their 
literary  and  cultural  power. 

The  outlines  of  positivisrrt  vmich  are  sketched  in 
roughly  here,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  represent  the  Eng-- 
lish  positivism  of  Prederic  Hai’i’ison,  rather  than  that  of 
Comte  himiself . Starting  v/ith  the  sincere  belief  in  the 
necessity  of  religion  to  man,  the  positivist  sets  himself 
to  a reconstitution  of  his  view  of  divinity  and  hutianity 
ux^on  the  basis  of  deirionstrable  knov^ledge.  In  its  insist- 


f !'■  ■ ^^:? 


ik>  <V-^«Mlv<Si4^'  ■ 


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, -■*  '•iia  ■■'''w 

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■ill  '■  . .•■  < 


49 


ence  upon  hard  matter  of*  fact,  the  data  of  experience,  as 
the  basis  of  speculation,  positivisui  is  affiliated  v;ith 
Hume,  Ttrgot  and  Diderot,  and  the  whole  current  of  eight- 
eenth empirical  philosophy. 

The  work  "positive",  according  to  Harrison,  is 
taken  to  condense  seven  ideas  implicit  in  positive  thought: 
"real — useful — certain — precise — organic — relative — sym - 
pathetic . " Theology  and  metapnysics  have  no  place  in  the 
positivist  rationale.  The  supreme  power  which  mia.n  can 
recognize  about  him  is  Humanity.  This  means,  not  as  some 
ironica.l  critics  have  assumed,  the  apotheosis  of  our  con- 
temporaries, but  "the  active  stream  of  Human  civilization." 
It  is  neither  ini'inite,  omnipotent,  nor  perfectible.  But 
it  is  real . There  is  nothing  contemiptible  or  ignoble  in 
this  ideal.  Absolutely , man  is  a speck;  relatively  and 
historically,  as  regarding  the  life  ne  has  to  live  on 
earth,  mian  is  supreme. 

The  position  of  posltivismi  as  a matter  of  logic 
is  agnostic  toward  the  existence  of  a higher  power,  toward 
immortality,  and  the  other  tenets  of  Cnrlstlan  irietaphysics. 
She  Positivists  have  adapted,  however,  many  terms  of  deep 
religious  significance  to  their  own  uses.  Harrison  stoutly 
maintains  a claim  to  such  words  as  "immortality"  and 
"Providence"  although  in  his  hands  they  lose  most  of  the 
hallowed  associations  which  have  consoled  hun;anity  in 
past  ages.  Harrison's  immortality  consists  in  the  incor- 
poration of  the  good  men  do  into  the  race  heritage.  The 
immortality,  ror  instance,  of  Milton  and  Shakespeare  con- 


X 


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X. _* 

' " rm 

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^ • 


\r  ,f*T^ 


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>.  ^ ♦►trutu  1 '/.'  • tj  f.- #i!<t  'wv'‘-'“ 


.Q«  'io'Kf  ^ 


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. o :./w.f  . . . 1 “,^16  ,-  .x  ::i-^ 

4 ‘ V - ^k»V^  ’U4.  l i ; ’ .S*Sj^Wk  ™ 

j * '^  = ■ ^ '.  ' O'j' xAi>tkr 


- {*$.  ■■.  ^730 1 ^Itd/V,' 


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L»iirV  . ’ A'f^  ■ f- 


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/ •i4'''u»i  ,.  .<  ■ j-’v  . ”tr»-  I ?i,/ 

^ ^ ^ i ■ * . »ii  i'J' 

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SH' 


7 


1 *1/^^  I ^ ■ ' * '•  ’ j ^ * ' ' *.  * i 


50. 

sists  Ox  their  hooks  '#hlch  stand  on  the  scholar’s  shelves; 
of  Darwin  in  the  addition  to  our  knowledge  of  an  import eint 
scientific  idea;  of  Thomas  Edison  in  the  thousand  refine- 
ments on  our  material  life  which  he  introduced,  and  which 
constitute  in  their  way  a permanent  addition  to  human 
civilization. 

In  briefest  scope  we  may  define  the  positivist 
idea  of  religion  thus:  Religion  is  duty.  This  is  indeed 

almost  purely  an  ethical  religion.  While  positivism  has 
developed  in  some  cases  into  a cult,  virith  all  the  appur- 
tenances of  a cult,  particularly  leaning  for  its  inspir- 
ation upon  Gatholic  ritual,  Harrison  has  consistently  op- 
posed the  introduction  of  creeds,  worship,  ritual,  priests, 
sectariBjiism,  or  any  suggestion  of  the  church.  "The  aim 
of  our  body  bas  been  zo  found  a school  of  thought,  not  a 
sect."  AlDaction  of  the  positivist  is  directed  by  moral 
principles.  Hence  the  importance  of  education:  "there  is, 

on  Positivist  principle,  no  road  to  stable  religious  con- 
victions except  by  the  way  of  knowledge  of  real  things." 
This  describes  the  ethical  religion.  Exalted  in  the 
character  of  its  ideals,  high  as  is  its  conception  of 
education  and  duty,  lofty  its  spirituality,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  positivism  has  failed  to  viln  its  way  among  a 
nation  imperfectly  educated  and  ungodly.  The  "Service  of 
Man"  is  a beautiful  social  ideal.  But  it  leaves  relatively 
untouched  the  feelings  of  those  who  meeui  by  religion 
emotion,  and  uncharmied  the  aestheticism  of  those  v^rho  mean 
by  religion  beauty.  To  them  our  common  humanity  is  a 


IP 


I ‘ 


11^' 


' ■•)  >/■  . V- * . ' , .'  tf' . 'V  ^ ■ ‘ ■ ■ "■>'■  j . . . JiiBP' 

•, -.|/.:Ar.*fV  •*•:  ‘v.^-ra  .:i,l . , '* 


i’i  -*i 
■>■  '<•’ 


■ > 


r-T'^ 


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v'  .:- 


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Lhi.  .M  ■ ’Is  "''■  ■•  ' . 4-V*  .—,,,.  - 

ft*,'  j ~ **o^ '."'■'^B,  •'.' < *:3u3t^^,.;-o%J; fii7  B^’'b ' -j 


M / 

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‘ *■**  '■*  * *■••  '» ' ■'jC-i.'  '1^,  |:£9^4irfii  t*,  '''*• 

r._j ' '•■•■♦‘v'u  ;..i  : a. , •;•  .■•.  -^tv  t o> ' 

life  i J,  •'  #' :*0*l  ■&*''  . n.;Rt!  t.;  ix  g?y- 

Ift.  Rf-  a,,  ' *'•  iflii  , ,i"z«w!WWbPIP^: 


\ ■ Xi  *f  ■'^'l  ' *w.»  •' 


, ..  \p  , ■■  ’'5;^  '.f '^Ll 


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, h ^.<KT^y,  '. iA  i; **  , ,,  ■ v , r * ittfit^' 


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,1  "S  ^ -C' 1^'  * 


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^ '.If  ',' .. <i  ■■  ,*f'"f ' , '.  ;,,.i  M ■''  '.i«, '•■'./  'iyfym 


:y.. 

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51 


doubtful  source  of  inspiration,  a slender  comfort  in 
adversity,  to  them  "the  kingdom  of  man  is  at  best  a 
narrov;  realm  and  a sorrowful."  ^ 

The  fact  is  to  be  confronted  that  positive 
idealization  of  Man  has  never  attained  the  effectiveness 
of  the  metaphysical  abstractions  of  Christianity.  If 
Christianity  has  waned  in  the  last  generation,  there  is 
no  reason  to  believe,  at  any  rate,  that  the  Service  of 
Man  v;ill  replace  the  worship  of  God.  Historically, 
positivism  represents  a type  of  thought  which  offers  a 
refuge  for  agnostics  in  Christian  ethical  Idealism.  In 
attempting  to  resuscitate  v/orship  without  the  traditional 
materlaj , Harrison  offers  pathetically  to  those  who  ex- 
perience the  famine  of  the  sj^irit,  a Barmedide  feast. 

II . 

I have  not,  perhaps,  emphasized  as  I should  the 
synthetic  character  of  Positivisra,  It  is  at  once  an 
education  in  scientific  truth,  a,  m.oral  discipline  in  con- 
duct and  worship,  and  a social  prograrii.  In  its  compre- 
hensive, synthetic  character  it  passes  beyond  any  form  of 
Christianity,  any  of  the  current  philosophies,  any  of  the 
social  utopias.  I have  dismissed  positivism  as  a re- 
ligion very  sunimarily,  and  for  reasons,  as  giving  little 
promise  of  abiding  power.  I have  nov/  to  unfold  the  pos- 
itivist social  progrejn  as  Harrison  understood  it.  In 
the  latter  direction,  his  impression  on  his  generation, 
distinctly  engrossed  as  it  v/as  v;ith  manifold  social 

1.  A Social  Reformer.  By  Morton  Luce,  nineteenth  Century. 

69:117. 


■r.\<  • _^*SSliS: 


,.wf: 


I 


I''  \ 77' \ 


!!{*.•: -»i. 


* ‘^ry>v  ‘ . V - -i  .k[ 


.T£  ■:  Tk(u  v" 


!"  ... -~  . '■  '■<•  V’ 

K ./.■*£ 

,■'■  ''  1,,',/,  40*1  ‘■  'f'*i.W  • C ,v-^  *><*•.  ■ *1^ 


1,  ■.  .V’  A^V*' 


, . 


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V ^ 


^ jl  ..  rft*r‘.in  t ^ 


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■ *'  -4''  ^ 

^ j'  -■  <• 


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Tklt*  .i'*'v4&‘v.^  j 


<■'.-■  s>''  ■ •^''  m *lMK^i^Mtilif<  X /“i^U 


. ej,;.  ‘ 

I 4,.;a*|/iij  ‘:"v..i*l'v.. X .i  I V v-,T 


*.,:>.  3<t-  1 1‘  ■ • I .I^;a*|j|f'‘i^vri’vi  .i  , V 

r »<•  , tv  r.U' . ,', 

' j / ' -^  ^Vv • >'■■  ii«' 

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,-5 


vift 


_*'■•'*'  i * Kiizj  1 iswtrT  .' , .*.v«  ix 


52 


protlems,  was  deep. and  effective. 

The  whole  positivist  sociology  is  based  upon 
the  notion  of  the  amenability  of  society  to  evolutionary 
law.  The  positivist  is  coni'ronted  virith  a world  capable 
of  improvement,  and  has  cultivated  in  himself  a sense  of 
his  individual  responsibility  for  its  betterment.  While 
Harrison  occasionally  is  fascinated  for  the  moment  by  a 
glittering  generality,  his  ideas  on  sociology,  economics, 
education,  politics,  and  art,  are  happily  uniform  in  their 
concreteness  and  taken  together  present  a complete,  consis- 
tent, synthetic  attitude  tov/ard  lli'e.  I now  propose  to 
examine  them. 

It  is  instructive  to  approach  Harrison’s  position 
by  the  comparative  miethod.  One  v/ould  expect  to  find  con- 
siderable agreement  in  treatment  of  practical  problems  in 
two  systems  of  thought  so  closely  associated  in  their  phil- 
osophical basis  and  historical  development  as  positivism  and 
utilitarianism.  Such  is  indeed  the  cs.se.  The  positivists 
owe  no  smiall  debt  to  the  utilitarians.  V/e  often  hear  the 
spirit  of  J.S.  Mill  in  the  words  of  Frederic  Harrison. 

They  v/ere  in  agreemient  in  their  general  conception  of 
sociology  as  a science,  on  the  Comuian  classification  of 
the  sciences,  on  altruism  as  a basis  for  social  organization 
on  the  social  character  of  labour  and  capital,  and  on  the 
duty  of  the  individual  to  the  social  organism.  Both  sought 
to  guarantee,  in  the  immortal  phrase,  ’’the  greatest  good 
of  the  greatest  number”.  They  differed,  however,  on  the 
means  of  attaining  the  end  they  both  sought.  Harrison 


• 1 


vn*',  *J 

o ',..  - 1.  l>•^  *•  . 

-jHlla 


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ML  1, 


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’ V.' 


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M 'vjr^  f^^r-rv,\u^^'r^''^  ' 

i V,  ' ^,  . V r*o.  '.  • 


•T-  ' ;t  .;» 


4 ‘ 


4 


' ■'?*  ‘ ‘f-"7  ' ''‘^?\  - 

. 4 V*e.o,  <.A  . 

' .•■■•^ ..  j(^ill\';' 

. I ,V  ' i»T* V'"'  ■ 

v | J^.' 

y f ji^  «i w^o.^  i-4  r;i 

. '^  ♦ ^ '^i  J ••  .J 


- 


♦ ,• 


N>.  ^ '.  Ti,rH.t;;i-i , i'.l 


l » fV*  »i*W 

■ ■■  ’ 


Llr-  ' ' ' i'  /’ 


, ■ 'Cj.  V -•  vi''*,  ' /^''  \ 

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'll 


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\ .,  ..  .«■■■  ««-  iS 


, T---  -TT 

' .nc'.-i*,!  u »‘..  •iwi2./‘K-:  'i-0  •■■  jj  1 M ^ . f# .;/» ''I 

•■.^"  'i'  • «•  TfX\ 

•j  . ,.»»■•?■  1, • , • iV'*.': 


• r^ 


.:*  triH*j.j/#»  ryi,’  <<i;  r.H  ^o.Ti' 

fe'i  ■' {.  ■\.  : 't'ilS 

li  - ^ jtu'  tXk^liMt’ 


. ■ ‘‘"-  fl  t-  ^•.  " B®f 'jtl 

•'V  t "V*-  111  - V, 

■ HI  ■-  i'"  .'i 

■ xi b,-  , r. irc  t ' ,ii;i.a<fS!a  ' ' 


■believed  that  life  could  be  organized  to  these  ends  on 
a religious  basis;  that  all  industrial  and  public  life 
could  be  informed  ?;ith  a religious  spirit  which  would 
minister  powerfully  to  the  altruism  of  the  individual. 
Harrison  v/rote  in  "On  Society",^ 

"It  is  one  of  the  most  distinctive  aims  of 
the  Positive  faith  to  restore  a religious 
aspect  to  practical  life  and  public  life,  to 
effect  a religious  orgardzatlon  of  practical 
and  religious  life.  And ‘to  do  this,  it  ap- 
plies the  same  great  maxim  — Life  belorxKS 
to  Huiri unity  — Live  for  others." 

All  this  Mill  emphatically  denied.  Harrison 
believed  that  the  individual  could  be  elevated  through 
society;  Mill  that  society  could  be  regenerated  by  the 
individual.  Thus,  with  complete  identity  of  aim,  the 
method  of  one  was  social,  that  of  the  other  individualistic. 

Orderliness  was  a distinctive  faculty  of  Harrison's 
mind;  eq^ually  so  was  the  need  for  large  areas  for  spec- 
ulative treatment.  To  these  may  be  added  a firm  fe.ith 
in  the  philosophy  of  experience.  And  so  v/e  have  from  Har- 
rison a comprehensive  system  of  sociology  based  upon 
behavioristic  psychology.  He  found  human  nature  complex, 
and  human  society  intricate.  The  central  problem  of 
human  llf'e,  with  all  its  modern  elaboration,  seemed  to 
him  to  be  the  reorganization  of  industry,  based  upon  in- 
dividual altruism,  social  conscience,  and  inter iiational 
morality.  Selfishness,  Harrison  found,  is  at  the  root  of 
our  industrial  evils.  The  task  of  positivism  was  to  ex- 
tirpate selfishness.  To  this  end,  Harrison  would  revive 

1.  On  Society.  By. Frederic  Harrison.  H.Y.  1918. 


*•  * , V .1  ■»  n,  \r 


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i * 


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, _,  '^'‘ 1 -4  S ••  '•'a'*'.  ' . . w ■ 


" • ■ y *1^  ‘ ■■'  '“'^Hh/'rafl  -i  W.  ■ J^jBIbw 

■ , I ’ • - '**^C  ‘ W ' ‘ •f 

U ,i%  .-  .^-‘  ■(■*'-  '■  »’w  " f ■•  .:w:  - ^ ‘ ■■•'HmkR^’:.' 

4vv. 


-$  *;r.  w^--  ',  7 ^ ,,,, 


54. 

the  medieval  conception  oi'  tne  individual's  daily  work 
as  a reciprocal  duty,  a social  1‘unction.  The  revival  of 
the  relation  of  lord  and  yeoman  b etween  employer  and 
employee,  the  one  affording  sustenance  and  protection, 
the  other  giving  loyal  service  and  fealty,  was  an  inte- 
gral part  of  this  scheme. 

ViTithout  pausing  to  examine  the  historical  ac- 
curacy of  this  picture  or  its  present  desirability,  let 
us  pass  on  to  view  the  aristocracy  of  the  positivist 
utopia.  "The  final  and  human  formi  of  society"  is  that 
which  "makes  the  sole  title  to  honour  or  to  power  the 
exercise  of  capacities  of  great  value  to  the  community." 
Harrison  arranged  for  a more  active  participation  in  the 
life  of  the  community  for  the  aristocracy  than  that  of 
game-preserving  or  ovming  land.  With  a conviction  epual 
to  Carlyle's  , Harrison  preached  the  gospel  of  work  as 
the  salvation  and  destiny  of  man.  "It  is,  af'ter  all, 
the  one  uniiarpiness  of  a man”  , wrote  garlyle,'*'  "that  he 
cannot  work,  that  he  cannot  get  his  destiny  as  a man  ful- 
filled." Says  Harrison,  "Idleness  is  the  anti-social 
vice...  The  first  step  towards  a wholesome,  human,  and 
social  religion,  is  a religion  which  will  consecrate 
labour."  Industry  "is  the  only  natural  and  honourable 
form  of  activity."  The  opportunities  for  the  Carlyleian 
man  in  the  Positivist  Utopia  are  plainly  spacious.  But 
what  of  the  aristocracy?  As  has  been  shov/n,  Harrison 
would  deprive  them  of  their  play  time,  presenting  them  in- 

1.  Past  and  Present.  Everyman  Ed.  p.150. 


i v'"-vv- 


*_  ^.'^i.ist  *11 ' / * '.?ir 7 ■ 1-'  .fr  ’’* ' ■ t 

>>-.>'.  ■ .:  • •:  ',:  '■  ■*(]•! ; "-'J 


■MS.*  :^’ o<  "u-.p'-.T 

•'  . ■ **■'*•  ■■■«,  ' ' •ii'''''*'' 

4*:^j|v'‘  J'l.  'ri  i.o>;  uXiX.i'r.-  *' .r;  *.,i..  <w2-?  , 

. i5’  ^ -■. , ■ '' 


.ti: 


.7^:. V;..  H*ri  :4nv‘. 

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~~  - * ' ■'  4 •'  I i '-1  ^ '"J.  ' -,7(.' 


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'J  ■ ;■  _ 

1 '?  .•v.‘‘  .is  i : ''t‘rf4i>/4;W'V  ^'i'.  '«  jT 

..4^.''  *'  <v.' 


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. ...  . .4  _ J-  . . ’>  4?  i,t 


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I Oi'*'"  "■*.  'fHUi 

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M h . » ': .,  .rr  *..^.  ’ « *«gHl3 

- ^.3  f \.'.vV  ■ '^  . ■ •■  "SLl 

#1  > I V-  f .’.itj'v"'  4v7.*«Dfl  »•  Jt^4'e% ' *: 0* 

rf*  I ' ^ , ' ' I .'(' 

1''"-  ’ , ~.»  4#r.  ^ AX.  jTU<'a>' 


■'^7  -silla&i ■'•  ^ 7*Ste»*Sr  • • 


55. 

stead  a serious  purpose  in  life.  ViThether  this  medieval, 
militaristic,  regimentation  of  society  for  industrial 
purposes  ViTould  turn  the  palate  of  the  modern  Englishman 
or  Ac'ierican,  will  probably  never  be  knov»m. 

The  rights  of  private  property,  according  to  the 
Positivist  theory  of  v/ealth,  are  not  to  be  disturbed,  but 
rather  confirmed;  not,  it  is  true,  as  moral  rights,  but  as 
a matter  of  social  convenience,  and  because  private  prop- 
erty redounds  to  social  progress.  Here  it  becomes  evident 
how  sharply  positivism  in  its  social  aspects  differs  from 
all  forms  of  communism  and  socialism.  All  these  seek  afar 
the  m.eans  of  redressing  present  ills;  all  seek  a radical 
reorganization  of  society.  It  is,  in  all  such  programs, 
a material,  physical  redistribution;  in  positivism  it  is 
moral. 

It  is  necessary  here  briefly  to  notice  the  ante- 
cedent conditions  of  industrial  organization  which,  Har- 
rison believes,  will  furnish  a.n  adequate  check  on  the  mis- 
use of  thrower  of  privately  controlled  wealth.  Like  the 
utilitarians,  Harrison  proposed  the  limitation  of  popula- 
tion, and  by  the  same  agencies;  postponement  of  marrie^ge, 
and  continence  v^ithin  the  bonds  of  matrimony.  In  addition; 
the  establishment  of  the  minimum  wage,  the  eight-hour  day, 
free  education,  popularization  of  the  idea  of  work  as  a 
socia.1  duty,  the  creation  of  a group  of  men  "whose  sole  bus- 
iness it  is  to  counsel,  inspire,  and  moralize  society", 

— and,  need  one  add — "an  accepted  religion,  practical, 
hunmn;  enforced  by  public  opinion  and  by  a recognized 


7 


^ • 6 


il. 


\ 

■'I  ” 

• •-  ■>  a'if  ' • 


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1 - ' i ‘‘iiJ 

Cj  ;0<1  1 . , I . 


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«/fO(t^4r‘ A’^;^  ■,%>!. I \ ^ ‘I  (T'i'XfC 

■ *!  ■ "■  ' ■ • •'.  ■ IL  _ .fiw  ■»*»:>* 


t«Vi!^' 


jf  ..t.•■J)‘;  ...V '«,.  •fvltt^;4*i'se‘(te.jij,ii, ATI 

I 15-  ' 5CS  '"  • ^ •' ■ 

ikIJt:/  . '»  * .''AA.  ;W^ 


.yjl('  :WH^]  • : . 1 V 140*. 


ItA 


I 


.., 

/'*i 


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t li  ■■  ''■•■'  \^-  '.''}(>>  * !i  ' 


-I  k.  . 

‘ ■i'’*»i  K jj'i  ' t .f!  N w*T'v<»Vii;  [. . ^,Cdo^> 


,'•’.  c%. 


1%  .*  if- V"  ' - >l  .,,  jjfi  C t‘  ; . '-T,  ^ , 


, ..  5 ' . w.c;  ^f  ■ 'i ^ >'i>,A’\»4i 


i.  4t.iv  u**V.v^  4'  : v/.t-tr, 

.tin  . «uv9QRV<')  hLi‘'iIk 


M.w" • ■.  4*ik:  vv(?*v‘%r>^v*  4Ti.  ;fl 

a./tv.--'  v^’  r*^  •!'>- •.i•^;^,/i4 


-i 


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, '415  X 


« 

'/' 

■ I f 

1 i •!■ 

i k»  Jk 

' ■'J  l-Tk  *yj  , , 

' *-t  / • jf* 

? ’■ 

,ii,  \-f>^<i  'ff/  />>  . 

‘^^-3  '{!■■ 

•^'  li'Isf’V  ,'X«9 

.:4li  ^.iij^,-;  • /J  ,,,i;i  t -Cl,; t'^, 

O'm  y*'hii4^‘*  la 

i.'i  , .AV 

j '!> 


I 




church  or  order  of  teachers".  All  social  energies, 
finally,  public  opinion,  the  talents  of  the  artistic, 
intellectual,  and  philanthropic  group,  club  and  plat- 
foriTi,  would  constantly  insist  "that  the  eEiployirient  of 
capital  was  a social  duty,  and  that  the  management,  use, 
and  transmission  of  capita,!  stood  on  the  same  footing  as 
the  functions  of  a general  of  an  army" , ^thereby  restrain- 
ing m,ost  powerfully  the  idleness,  selfishness,  oppression, 
luxury,  and  instinct  for  misapproT.)riation  of  the  capital- 
ist classes.  The  old  antipathies  and  bitter  animosities 
which  "Capital"  and  "Labour"  represent  v/ill  melt  away  when 
we  learii  to  capitalize  Humanity.  Then  "the  v/hole  condition 
of  Industry  would  be  transformed  if  those  v/ho  mcOiage  the 
social  capital  of  mankind  v/ere  expected  to  behave  as  those 

p 

do  7/ho  direct  armies  and  ships  of  the  common-wealth." 

Harrison's  ideal  of  revealed  economics,  in  which 
the  industrial  hierarchy  of  Capitalist  and  workmen  will  be 
translated  into  a similar  hierarchy  of  sociologically  in- 
clined seraphim  and  cherubim,  choiring  the  gospel  of  work, 
depends,  it  is  to  be  noted,  upon  their  attairjnent  of  an 
altruistic,  social  point  of  view.  Its  attainment,  hov/- 
ever,  rests  upon  the  "antecedent  conditions"  which  have 
been  catalogued  above.  Harrison's  regeneration  of  so- 
ciety depends  upon  the  moral  and  social  education  of  the 
individual,  which  Itself  is  possible  only  in  a regenerate 
society.  Implicit  assumptions  debilitate  arguments.  When 
we  bring  them  all  out  here  and  scrutinize  them,  we  find 

1.  On  Society  p.l52 

2.  Ibid,  p.268. 


■ . <t' t - ' I..  ■?«'(( 

■ i WttCiWR 

r ,-tK: '-idfeorf  , 
ti.  ■'  ■ V ^ 'Ja  ' 

|i  A ftL  'iJH:-  .A  . •'W  I 

3U"  ’ > ■ ■ ' ’ " ’ ' 

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5i;i;-:r^.‘ "'V  ""  O'  «4Ti^4'*^k 


' ' ' '=•  '’‘I 


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tu-iM'  1 uV  -fi  V-'I  ■'»'■*'  ‘4|  Xtu* 

■V^  5»i*]riiar  . ' > ^ ' V’* 


' 1 


nv 


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-*.,*tovi^ ' 'J'!? 

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V .-.  i»  V..OI,;  ii/«i..^X‘i5J»a f T.HII... ••  . ' • 




I ' i i»  ' 1 ~ i V • 4 / * ■ ' u.  .sWifA 

. . . ■'■  ‘ ''  . ' '>A  '"  '■  ' ’ 


Ai  lif 


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: .1  . 'I.  ,j4rf''i'x.o* *:  «iAi#i*  *'  OiMti0, 

• * ‘ ^ ’-  ■-■'•-  ‘ . 'i  ■ ■' I'e*"' 

•''■  ' '■  ■'''  ‘■ 


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'^'.Srwyi  . :x»il'\*  •*' 


■ * ♦ T^>?  ;'  ■ 


i. 


* ‘k 


jQyjgjiii  ^ 


^ -y.u  ilfcr:r-y 


57. 

that  the  arguirient  at  this  point  has  described  a coraplete 
circle. 

III. 

The  end  oi  education  is  civilization.  The  pos- 
itivist vievi?  of  education  demands  in  the  individual  a 
clear  conception  of  his  condition  and  pov^ers,  and  most  of 
all,  of  his  duty  tovi^ard  his  fellov\^s.  He  studies  "to 
strengthen  his  mind,  and  give  it  material  for  the  true 
v/ork  of  education  — the  inculcation  of  human  duty." 

"What  we  need  are  clear  principles  about  the 
moral  ns.ture  of  man  as  a social  being;  about 
the  elements  of  human  society;  about  the  ^ 
nature  and  capacities  of  the  understanding." 

Harrison  stoutly  maintains  the  supreme  impor- 
tance of  the  principle  of  free,  widely  disseminated  edu- 
cation in  guaranteeing  the  liberty  of  the  individual  in 
the  free  exercise  of  this  faculties,  and  the  development 
of  whatever  capacities  for  self  expression  there  may  be  in 
him.  Common  education,  he  wrote,  is  "the  root  idea  of  the 
Positivist  scheme  of  society."  On  it  rests  Harrison's  hope 
of  accomplishing  the  moral  revision  of  society  away  from 
the  selfish  euhlcs  v/hieh  now  pertain  in  the  practical 
economics  of  such  empirical  sociologists  as  bricklayers, 
carpenters,  bakers,  and  millionaires. 

"The  first  condition  of  the  working  world  in 
the  Positivist^ scheme  is,  that  it  is  an  edu- 
cated world."  ^ 


1.  The  Meaning  of  History.  H.Y.  1895.  p.l3 

2.  On  Society,  p.  169. 


i 


.J'  i 


1 4fi  T 


• ^ * A-  T.  • . S-.  ' «5,  ■ 


^ ft  «Lj. 


fey - ■-./.-  ^ tO'-T^xV 


^ .«» 


: i--  V“  ■ • C 


• * ' **  ■*  ‘^-  'v'  ' ’ ^ 1 1 4 iio #43^ ^*' ' ' ' 

ff  >i^ ..yt«/.  • •;  «.''<<■  '■*,'?  Mr  vvrm'yft>,j-^^’'\?‘  4 ^ ',■  ,^.  ■ a 


1'^'  >>j^5ii.-. 


*^'  " ^ 

r.., . f. -.I -a'*  ‘’.t' 


,.-  v^f‘ L;i;.vi;r 'xii^jsir/  .a  .(^ t 

- . tJi:  - , i.  - in. : .;i‘^ : • ; 

- ^.vvvi  •'.  > 


W%tl 


I ru'-'i',  *»  ■' 


» 


' ■ , 

.4 


.<>3  j 


• : \ •.'I  - V.  ^ • ;-MTfVN  - tri*» 


P ’ t \i  ‘i,*..*  i.' 

* 


^ V" 

; j-l:  rtK 


«v  . 

■f\'  pri<T  •*'^Ty  W' 


•H 


' *.  >■  t 


■^*|- 


ItA- 


iM.  4 . j »ja 


:-.;-j : »>’ ii.r  15 j:  ail£t;t(^^i.  sgi,n  ,- 


4 ».. 


; a .*^.  J fu’-*’  A .*  ? '■■  r,  ^4i  ;^0 

■|ij;f«  ' i"',  ’r  ■‘'(.J 

" ' , ^ S'- ’><.• ' 


,t»'  riii’iAii;jf 


- 'liqi  n ,i  V •‘‘v  *lv»i-i'fii4i(vi;; 

-ut ' 4 ■■  ^ '■■  ia^'Sviv  li  r'v’^3ii^ 


■.-{ 

I ' . "Vi 

'A  =J.'.;K- ' 


'•’/ 


‘ ;’i‘ 


li- 


5 8 

Education  is  to  be  taken  in  a bigii,  serious 
sense,  as  " a training  in  the  Poetry  of  the  v/orld,  in 
the  elements  of  Science  and  History,  and  a course  of 
Philosophy  and  Religion."  Under  this  scheme,  "workmien 
would  be,  socially  speaking,  gentlemen,  and,  scientifi- 
cally speaking,  philosophers."  There  v/ould  be  created  in 
this  way  a true  moral  equality,  and  an  enli^itened  pub- 
lic opinion  which  would  act  as  a sort  of  moral  centre- 
board in  the  ship  of  state.  It  would  make  gentlemen  of 
the  masses,  and  sensitize  theiri  to  the  highest  Interests 
of  England. 

In  like  manner  Positivist  education  would  in- 
evitably enroll  emiployers  among  the  socially  minded.  They 
viTould  constitute  a sort  of  Industrial  chivalry,  with 
great  latitude  for  the  exercise  of  the  higher  disinter- 
estedness. 

"Just  as  in  old  time,  the  great  swords  and 
neroes  or  the  miedleval  world  Intervened  to 
protect  the  weak  and  to  see  justice  done,  so 
in  the  new  industrial  world  it  will  be  the 
part  of  men,  without  public  functions,  pos- 
sessed of  great  capital,  to  intervene  to  assist 
the  v/orkers  at  critical  times,  to  maintain  them 
in  a just  strike,  to  meet  exceptional  distress, 
to  prevent  local  acts  of  oppression  and  to 
supply  public  services  in  a crisis." 

The  munificent  benefactions  of  the  rich  Athenians  to 

their  city,  the  great  public  spectacles  and  amusements 

offered  the  populace  by  the  Roman  patricians,  suggest 

ro  the  historical  mind  of  Harrison  the  opportunity  for 

another  pareullel,  in  which  the  wealthy  of  the  United 

1.  On  Society,  p.  176-177. 


■■  i»*> 


f.j.,  ••■'**  i.*f'i-*r>a  tf,C<U  '‘'■*-^ 


•■■*  ' , - ■ ■ !f  ■ 

— ?'  , .,*  •"  — ^ 


-'•  *xv  o*nti 

iil  ’'S 

'■’i  i .iM  , >'  ’ 

4 -*-*—■■ 


, j> 


11^  tii 


li' ^ T,  -'  ■ * ’ * > fr  ' ^ ^ 

•,  f4*to*;r  r«r  t’iiri".  '..^  i'd>'  i>  !,)m'  r 4i(^tnifj;o  tSit^ ;’•'■«!*  • iH 

V^...;'  "c  ' .a  .... 

t-B  "-few-  ''■■  ■•.^'  ■ -4i..i  •:  *e..Wi  ';p  .!jE;4*v.4»^  tfij  fc*5/0;O4^'.  v'  V..‘  “‘  .1 


!m 


^ X t r;>  , y 

■.  ..i  i .J;.\ 


• •■•■“  jfrj^^rjr  L 0 

i"'-  , r .i%.'  i'::,'3% "fi'l*. Av  4>>J ♦■' 

' L ^ h;  ■ ^ 

I •’  l.yv  . . ^ /' v\ 


-k 


l’  I' 

;-  ti;  , , ;^!.- ‘*  . '■  i -2  ■'  ■ 

4;'.' . p-L-i  (»■'  </».'■> :f '■  '^^->.  o<^  t 

,u,..'rj^v  iw,  .:- V7:  ».  . f'%vt V» 

^ ■ as#  ‘ ^ 


.■‘  V.  ' 

All 


( %v 
‘If 


y.  -!i  ■•  ..,  ' 


} ■'  i‘\ 

A»t 


' if 


>-i.  > :;i*P4A  rt' 


IJrvr  ^156' 


■ ' - — -ifc.  ' 

• "'■■■  ' '■  - v ' ■ '•  ''^’-^t-ci  '*'  ' Vf''''^,V' 

A'^-v.nti'  ^.“--  ’i 'i.‘ t.pi(to>r “j '.CT 


59 


Kingdom  v/illte  in  the  future  educated  up  to  a graceful 
diversion  of  "cheir  private  revenues  to  the  uses  of  so- 
ciety. 

Let  us  tur2i  to  Harrison's  word  on  twentieth  cen- 
tury pedagogy.  He  attained  the  ripe  vigour  or  late  mid- 

o 

die  age  with  t ne  ci^se  or  the  nlneteentn  century,  tne  clr- 
cuiTiStances  or  his  ov/n  youth  gradually  mellowing  in  his 
mind,  merging  tneir  more  salient  outlines  in  the  purple 
distance.  It  is  the  period  of  lil'e  in  which  eminent  men 
are  given  to  oracular  utterance  on  the  contemporary  scene. 

So  v/e  find  Harrison  looking  about  him  sharply,  scrutiii- 
izing  the  early  twentieth  century  with  Victorian  particu- 
larity. Harrison  lignts  upon  education,  among  other  topics. 
When  he  can  announce  "I  have  now  an  experience  of  some 
forty  years  as  student,  teacner,  and  examiner",  custom 
and  convention  unite  in  allowing  him  full  freedom  to  ex- 
press the  "profound  conviction"  that 

"At  scnool  and  at  college,  lads  and  girls 
are  being  drilled  like  Gerraan  recruits  — 
forced  into  a regulatlo^style  of ^ learning,  of 
thinking,  and  even  of  writing."  ^ 

This  accounts  too  for  the  state  of  literature  in 
his  later  years.  Harrison  finds  it  only  moderate  in 
q.uallty  and  fastidious  in  its  standards.  The  discovery 
that  literature  is  in  a deplorable  state  is  not  ini're- 
quently  made  by  elderly  gentlemen.  We  need  not  be  deeply 
concerned  that  Harrison  does  not  rise  above  the  limita- 
tions of  the  flesh.  His  reasons  hov/ever  jumr)  consistently 

1.  Mem-ories  and  Thoughts,  p.  10. 


TO 


n.  ■ ¥1 


BP  . _r . 


/fCT-'lr 


|''<  I ' * • - • J ''*  r"' 

“?■  ■''''.  : i ,'  . 

. 'i.  .-.  t^L^  f "* 


■»■«  '. /tw  •^^■■i>9gf 


A. 


.»  ' 


fi‘ll  J W'  w 

li 


. . A 'm' 

r^  *■  -Nv"  '4 


Cv 


t 


j -rL^  *";v4  ‘4£|4i^  , 


. L'^■  ■ ' 


:-.■  (f  ;..  a rxli  ‘ ;.,.''^-'T 


• IWMt-  V.’ititi  MW  .*►.<»  "t  s^  jt  fmvX^ 

'■}.?'  ‘ . P -.;;*l.  '^A 

iCfj.'  ,•-  t ->^iiii..  iiu  -ifi  • . \v’oC  haivj  w 


rw  ; 


- -'s." . Mii¥''.  '•  ■’  *'  ***•'  *' . 


"f  , ( 


uaJ. 

(I 


. *.  ■ ~"^  'H  , 1 ‘'J'iT 

y oi»y.i;4^ «*<•’>  iv^O  ili^  ;* 
t 1 (Lt  <"XJ<-W ■ 4ii. ' t /(aijtrfeu  u , « 'Wir^. * .5 

.,  ■■  ' : “>7  4 •.^i,:;;  r,  • • • u,i 

;-^  VV'i  . . "‘)fV  ^ 


>.»  '4NI--  f 

- '..if  •>  ’ <^>f  r ^ it,<i*tfc!  ii*i  'it'  i 


, V‘,  % » 

'i 


:r. 

} 


;T. 


1.311 


‘»l4r 


' 'XA . vftC  ty 


‘ ’ /'i 

. ■*.  / . 


wi>-7  Xji  i* 


>!\ 


•;.'  •’.  ; ' 'A'.  ' ’ '•'  • I'jPI 

'•C'4'tJiiJ  !i4*'  <#<t|>!/lfc*^ijSI,‘«.lj((#  )••  vft  ;wj 

' ' *i::^  < f- 


'’■* 


V I.  • 

- , rr^lji  ,,  , ’:,W  ■IV:/  ■ 


with  his  criticism  of  the  educational  ideas  nov»r  in  vogue. 
Universal  education  is  directly  responsible  for  our 
large  body  of  fair  literature  and  the  utter  absence  of 
the  best.  This  status  quo  is  "the  penalty  of  giving 
ourselves  up  to  mechanical  culture," 

It  is  a strange  circumstance  that  Harrison  did 
not  perceive  that  his  ovm  educational  progrem  was  weak 
in  precisely  the  same  way  in  which  the  systera  in  force 
is  weak.  He  complains  in  i^uite  the  spirit  of  Mill 
against  the  dangerous  uniformity  which  modern  science 
and  culture  have  introduced  into  European  life,  while 
advocating  earnestly  a scheme  which  gives  to  education 
an  universal  efficacy  and  moral  ascendency  claimed  for 
it  by  no  one  but  a positivist.  Diffusion  of  the  instru- 
mients  and  uniformity  of  the  practices  of  education  must 
evolve  a product  standardized  and  trade-marked. 

IV. 

Politics  in  the  Positivist  view,  is  a substan- 
tive part  of  religion.  The  theoretical  ethic  of  the 
Higher  Good  to  v;hich  both  the  civilized  and  uncivilized 
nations  of  Christendom  pay  lip  service,  coupled  with  a 
practical  code  of  selfishness  constitute  to  Harrison  an 
impossible,  anomalous,  but  remediable  situation.  The 
key  to  Europeaii  domestic  politics,  Harrison  virote  pro- 
phetically in  1906,  is  self-assertion.  Hation  shoulders 
nation  for  primacy;  even  the  moral  sciences,  literature, 
art,  history,  and  philosophy  are  contaminated  by  the 
spirit  of  chauvinism. 


Iqjin.iHBi—  I 


KP  k'.'.  > ' i ' •'  ■ "'  ^ -.t- 


. . • ■ ' "I i !.<»«: I;v  u " ' i *'■  >"  ^ '•' 


R ■■  -T  . ■ J , *,-'1^  ■'■  ^ ‘ 

j . "lo  ujj  :.rt/.' \;sj«Ar 


I Utl- 


" V"  f., 


\ 


^O'i^  0 


■'  ’ ' *■'  ’ • 

I .j^.. ..  - .la-vr  ’.  ■■.  r-iiu/XMiitJpo^ 


^ T ■ '* ‘ tuH. 

■ :V-  - •.;..  '^u^A'xc  '■  . V. 5S®C. 

■'•'  i .•  ''  * ‘‘{^’^ 

<'.  Wji^nvi  r'‘>  vj»vl^  J '■'■JlJ'':»ft|v<?'t*i  ' rIS’ 

. ■ ’ ' VL  ■ ,'M' 


1. 


;*ji.)[if\l Ac  < *itf 


.it 


A,,.'  >"■  '■ 


ii 


Wi/JirO.-'iia  a-4  Hii-:',  '/-if-  .’"»!  ;•  :>i  v'lWi.*"'^'  A'Pti 

'■  ."4  . b»\^  . ' ^ ,%0:  l.'i  s‘>  tr^  ^ •.'  1 ''A 

I ’ -I'  ',  i * ' vmSii‘^4 


<>  *» 


1^' 


. 7i  U'  tj'CUl  vrrrt 

U*i'  ■ ■ . " V '/.t  r.  ' 

,u  -^c  . ,>*^«'<-;  .•» 

■ ! ^ ‘ : ^jT-^  . ‘ 1--  ■ ■ ■■  • i 

. **r  t;?  ‘ .■:l1jU)^tfvv^‘^b30o4^|^iw 

' . - o •'^  * V ’1 


- ? .1  i.  u i ; f ■ : , «f . I i t\  . 4 1 r^i' 

I 


;ii  f’Xt 


• ! . . V : ->s  ^ ^ ,‘. 5p  •' .' 

-v'-* ’*••  ••••-■  ■ > r.? ' " i •:•-■  «^xn(  li^Uw-  *t64Bi&-^ 

■ • ' -*■'**  . %!  . ",  t-  I ■ • *jml 


(f/1 


rv  iV'  • '■•■  Qs  •-.'•t  .;-.i;'.7 


; ^i^L  :j*,» X^.i.  > ;'^ 

. .#  r.  L'  ^ f-i4» '/  d! WiS 

' "^  ' ■ i , * ■ ' f.-.'i^;  ''  ■ ‘.i 


• onrv 


Wf 

9 t 


ij  , WilHV,/  'Vi'»  '^■^^.r;■iJ•^»  ■^# 

T . ‘ 


... .^, , .. 

r-  i-ili 


61 


All  this  is  clearly  descriptive  of  the  imper- 
ialistic attitude.  Uo  where  does  Harrison  align  himself 
more  definitely  with  the  liberal  tradition  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  than  in  the  spirit  in  which  he  attacks 
questions  of  international  morality.  Harrison  lived  to 
witness  what  Cobden,  Bright,  and  the  others  of  the 
Manchester  school  of  economics  did  not  foresee;  that  free 
trade,  instead  of  ushering  in  the  millennium,  would  re- 
sult in  greater  armaments,  and  keener  national  animosities. 

Harrison's  attitude  in  foreign  affairs  has 
already  been  traced  in  the  previous  chapter,  as  part  of 
the  history  of  his  personal  development.  It  was  consis- 
tently liberal  from  the  time  v/hen,  nine  years  of  age, 
he  rejected  militarism  as  represented  by  the  corpse  of 
the  Duke  of  V/ellington,  and  refused  to  attend  the  funeral 
of  the  great  general,  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

Turning  to  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  British 
Empire,  we  find,  among  the  topics  which  interested  Har- 
rison, University  reform,  Parliamentary  reform,  and  Irish 
Home  Rule.  He  was  a member  of  the  executive  committee  of 
the  celebrated  Jamaica  committee  (1866)  by  which  a group 
of  prominent  liberals  "endeavored  to  bring  to  the  bar  of 
justice  Governor  Eyre  and  the  civil  and  naval  officers 
who  had  wantonly  carried  out  so-called  Martial  Law,  and  put 
the  leaders  to  death  without  trial,  in  defiance  of  Con- 
stitutional Law."^  J.S.  Mill  was  President  of  the  com- 

1.  Autobiographic  Memoirs,  I.  p,  313. 


V 4^ 


mym 


'll  .’>  ■■•(  I n:  « 

^ • N',  f ^ i.‘_f  Jk\ '^. 


- *’  *. 

^ • . - ' i r ' ; 4*  ^L 

\ , ' 

>•  ij  N * *.  v^r."!'  . j 

_ M-i,  t»..  -ifolrlv  ni  4 


wl  riw‘W  t!  .*  \i<.  :t. 

^ '.  - v.-.K ''’■■.■?•  • MM 

•'*1  ■-*  *.ii' •.’.* 

£%lU!iO  \:fai^4t.2 

; ■•;  •.  -'■■  ■ '■ 

^ M ^ !’ i 'v  "T M vs'  . # -j *'u - • (i JL >Aio * _ iM'- "tin 


51J  ;o  ’ 

3» 


V-i-ii 


*’f 


■>  - 

•<■1 


• -.-r'  • * M.'fi 


..'.U  C.U  ‘■'If ’ -M- 


*"j  ^.*  _*  I * ' • ^ / ‘ ■* 


ei*.- 

, ,t..f.  ..ajiijitM  ‘»'!><l^fe'iji  «r  siytf'j'  , •>{ 

I ■ , • t-.V  t ‘ V-ji  /I  ' '^'-1 

''jr;  , 

VI  Iff  ( iV-'< *-** 


-V' 


I !i  . 0, 


.'’’  ' It*  i-*S  V J 


▼ fr  -J  1 


o#-V4»‘<r  *'  V 

r/i  “S' Si'i-W'i-ti.'V'  H 


■w;:  t» 

>a 


S'  /"  ' ‘ '>  ,,  Jfc.. I ‘: .-‘A™ 

• >.4»  ’'  " ‘ ' ■ ''VtJillbVaJI'i. 


I”  C\ta .’f'i.jirt  ••  ■ ' ; 

M *^ 


^ i ! 


w. 


^ , ly  j(j| 

"'  - i'l 


, • . ,(■  .vO-tosT/-  iir4'ifi,5ii'’‘ 


£i 


rtfs^i*  -l"i 


,j'  4 *^W 

. ' 'uV;  ' i 0 : 4 ‘*‘  ..t|J*,‘iv.-'4Jt'^' 

' V '■  ,'  I ■!:•■''  tffi  A' 

Wi  Ulfwr  vu.- 

^ , 1' r- ^ ■ .v> i|j|^  al. ^ 

t ' > ’f  - ■ . r-  * , i''  V 


afd 


62 


mittee.  Leading  members  were  Jonn  Bright,  Huxley,  Thomas 
Hughes,  Goldwin  Smith,  and  Herbert  Spencer. 

Cariyle,  on  the  other  hand,  v/as  at  this  time  an 
active  member  of*  a parallel,  but  opposed,  committee 
formed  to  defend  Governor  Eyre  and  the  military  officers 
who  had  Cfcirried  massacre  and  torture  through  the  island 
under  the  pretext  of  enforcing  martial  law,  Harrison 
at  this  time  published  a caricature  of  Carlyle's  literary 
style,  and  his  position  in  defending  Governor  as  the 
"strong  man",  entitled  "A  Hew  Lecture  on  Hero-^/^’orship, " 
Tne  fame  of  the  incident  which  evoked  it,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  parody  make  it  worth  quoting  in  part.  The 
introduction  gives  Carlyle's  characteristic  flavour  vvith 
amusing  fidelity. 

"It  may  be  known  to  some  men  (or  it  may  be 
uiiknown)  — in  tnis  purblind  generation  it 
matters  little — that  1,  Tnomas,  have  been 
going  about  this  sad  world  of  ours,  my 
masters,  in  search  of  a true  Man." 

The  new  carlyle  finds  his  "true  Man"  in  the  person  of 

Lieutenaiit  Brand,  an  officer  charged  with  murder  as  a 

result  of  his  activities  in  the  Jamaica  Insurrection. 

The  skit  ends  in  a comic  eulogy  of  the  lieutenant,  not 

untouched  with  asperity. 

"A  youth  tnis  wno,  when  he  notes  unveracity 
in  a man,  can  say  witn  beautiful lest  geistichest 
simpleness,  "You  lie";  and  when  he  is  angry 
says,  with  no  amphilogisms,  "I  will  shoot  you." 

A leader  to  be  obeyed  tnis,  who  v/ill  say  to 

a man  under  him,  "D you,  do  this."  And  if* 

he  does  not,  "Give  hi^  two  dozen."  Ahl  scrib- 
blers, laviryers,  representatives  of  the  People, 
Morality-mongers,  puppeteidolons;  and  phanttis- 
magorio-histriones,  do  not  your  own  backs 
tingle  at  tnose  small  words,  "Two  dozen"'/  iiiy 
friends,  let  us  cnerish  this  youtn,  and  it  may 


' ■ ' ‘Ti  ■ 


j ' iu-  iji.;  -> 


T^Jl.;  .'i  ,T  i,  ii'C  fr-»4 


'•  ,Ki4jJ  “t’-n^C.  . AuL  ♦ *i\i 


s'; 


' '*'M  ^ .amm^  ^ 

t^■^  J?  . ' ui«'i.  ^ t'^v^xL  -lo 

! ••*  " ■•  • ‘J  ' i j ‘ ‘ ’ ’IJiH 

^ *' ■ ^ ^ ^ ^ ■ *’  ‘ ’ ■'  * ’’ ' *'" ' *^' '' 

■ ■ *'  ‘ '■'ivu'i  '^' J- ^ 

? V Tiioi  1^";?  » ,-t; 

^ * . '* ' ' Li  f "I  ,*•  % T 

^ •'  , ''*■  ‘.'*i^X.,4,:JlV' 

i 

:.Msi'i 


. 


t .» 


0' 


*Wifrjt  M '0  i * •*  ' ■ i’  jp-' 


* >,  ‘i 


1 L'. 


’ r 

;i  <» 


Mtl‘^iC«^<i;  m'  to  . 

y , ' >’r'' 

' '',  *^.'^  \it''  ® 

■•  rj,^  ,,.  , ■>'  •'•»^  • 


i'  ..^^*  t<V'  U'  ’•t  '/  '.yi%~  '0i 

.*  KiiS^  .ut, 


^ 0*  /.  # i>A.-i/A  a.  . n 


jr.4  • 


■•  J p.-g^*  ir.vj'  -i 

J’;  ‘ v;.'«fci  .***■.■• 


B »*■  • 


. '.f  /»4.fc  .it^i  4.;,idl, 

• ‘ - •’ V' . i!*b ' ' '■•■ « ts  *.  , d n ^ 


■ii  ' ■ ■ 

. • w - *►-  % 


'.^  f 


* ^ tr- 


i ! 


4 - 


I'*  J 


•.  :.^,r  Si'^. 

'iV.itiL*  TL  - ' ■ 


•-<  -Y  -.  « - ■ 

4t;  --  • -s* 


TTT 

De  well  yet  in  this  bewildered  God's  earth 
or  Devil's  earth  --  for  if  it  be  God's 
earth  or  Devil’s  earth  inq.uire  not  too 
cautiously,  knov/ing  only  that  it  is  meant  for 
the  man  who  can  go  his  own  way,  and  make 
whosoever , gets  into  his  way  go  everlastingly 
squelch."'^ 

Harrison  opposed  tne  annexation  of  Egypt,  tne 
prosecution  of  the  Boer  War,  and  always  viewed  the  im- 
perialistic difficulties  encountered  in  India  as  a 
just  visitation  upon  England  for  maintaining  a world 
empire.  Harrison  reacted  violently  from  the  prevalent 
tendency  t(]^rop  "England"  and  "Englishman"  for  "Briton", 
"Britain",  "Great  Britain",  or  "The  United  Kingdom."  He 

3 

v/rote  in  Memories  and  Thoughts  "England  is  my  native 
land,  and  the  name  is  good  enough  for  me.  Irishmen  and 
Scots  can  call  themselves  what  they  like.  So  may  Can- 
adians, Australians,  Hew  Zealanders,  and  Rhodesians," 
but,  he  writes  in  paraphrase  of  a famous  line  penned  by 
a contemporary  and  compatriot,  "In  spite  of  all  tempta- 
tions to  belong  to  these  mighty  nations,  I remain' an 
Englishman. " 

V. 

Harrison  ha^- the  synthetic  mind.  He  has 
attempted  to  embrace  history,  philosophy,  theology,  the 
classics,  English  and  French  literature,  art,  law,  the 

1.  Autobiographic  Memoirs.  1-343-44. 

2.  Memories  and  Thoughts,  p.  261. 


- — =»' 


ff.  : 

. aft', — 

9,:^'  ...  , .. 


41 


fc;!*! 


Mr  ^ ?fc  ■t  -,^i7, , - I ; . %vi5  1 *'i 

'*  l>  Jfi*?  rtt  b^Jlf^.  ./'V'i^^* 

\ , a i h^c  ,v'.^  tioso 

V . \ir< ' i i.  **ry'..^  't^  y ^ u '/i?'  ,•  ■ v'Ct6U|*‘'^'j'i 

■ . ■ 'M  :■..,  r ■ ,,'''-ir 

■ 

y,.  .-i.' '■ta' i 

' ]SB!-  »taiBr^ 

. -.xa^  ' V%  'TO":  rvv " .“i  /Miv  ' ■ • ■ 

'*■■  * ‘S#-  '"V  ^ < 

,f^vf*.x;,"^v  • ' *'i'  Ijn 

***■■■  - ■ ’•  'ViraH*^ 

i'  .’■  :;  ..wT 

• ' ‘V.;  ^tU'^X-''-  -.OSvTT’jl  . ,)Aa£^^^V'^ 

» f^’4^ 


•>  ^ V iVj^u  \ . -*.fit^X^«>!i.s^,ty,i,  , , 

■•■  ' ■ ■ ^1  ‘ - ^ ..  : , j 

- > ’ ' JM 


AX'*  « h’ : -T . 


1 ','H 

1 . ■'  ^ -r  ; 

,0*-i.. 

s » 1-i  • -rf 

/fi 

'■■  u-'  ;>“  i ,/  'v. 

j U,1 ..“  '\'  ij  ^ 

...# 

■4  V 

• “■  ■•  iH ■ fcn ' ^Efco 


64 


historical  develooment  and  practical  application  of 
political,  economic,  and  social  theory,  and  after  reach- 
ing maturity  he  devoted  himself  to  the  serious  study  of 
the  natural  sciences.  He  has  ;vritten  on  almost  every 
topic  v/hich  has  arrested  nis  attention.  What  he  has  to 
give  varies  in  value  with  his  familiarity  with  the  sub- 
ject; hut  v/hat  he  has  to  give  that  is  in  its  way  uniq.ue, 
the  residuum  which  remains  inevitably  with  one  who  turns 
his  pages  with  any  serious  intention,  is  something  inde- 
feasible, the  flavor  of  a deep  and  attractive  personality 
capable  of  stimulating  interest  in  every  subject  about 
which  it  plays.  The  same  sureness  of  touch  with  which  he 
v;ould  pass  judgement  on  a new  translation  of  Euripides, 
or  a new  act  of  Parliament,  or  v/ith  whien  he  would  por- 
tray the  conditions  of  life  in  the  ideal  city,  Harrison 
employs  in  passing  his  aesthetic  judgements.  Hot  the  least 
of  their  merit,  one  feels,  lies  in  their  incorruptible 
genuineness.  What  he  admires  he  praises  with  all  the 
resources  of  a skilled  pen  and  a frank,  generous  nature; 
whatever  calls  forth  his  disapproval  he  condemns  with 
enual  vigor,  the  judgement  usually  being  referred  to  the 
principles  of  a more  or  less  objective  standard.  Hence 
the  comprehension  of  the  foundations  on  which  his  criti- 
cisms are  based  constitutes  an  important  and  grateful 
lesson  in  an  age  of  subjectivity,  relativity,  and  impres- 
sionism. 

Of  music  less  than  the  other  arts  did  Harrison 
venture  to  speak  with  authority.  The  road  to  critical. 


Hj^  (jtjvJ**  ;^4i^ 


'".  ■’■■/i^:'  . ♦ '•  . ■•  l-f!'  , ■ »y>  ■■  =^T  -iw-'y 


> ‘ ^ ' iufl3  I 

17.MV  XI?  'jSli^ ''  ■ T! 


'f»;  Vu  at  (»#*vi*J^’^'‘  • <‘aI  ••  ^‘ 

I •.  * 


X... 


•AC 


■f-..  .1 


i-  , ■*(.  f if.  W .^w , 

I.  ''S^„  ■' .' j*‘'jlli'  -'T 


1 k 


y: 


41^ 


r ^ 


) .1.  •<,'..*  * 'tr;;'  t 

1 * 


»V^^'  ■'■'* ' • 

It  »i'>-'^  ■■•' 


. y iM'vi, 

'I,'  . '■  -vv  -'v.  aHafc.^i 

i ‘ tjr  .'»>'■'•■?  .^‘.-'I.fc-r'  X,»..  .*f.V'  ' V ' 


» I « ^ 


L-*'  ■ ' -i — H ' >■  :.£iM 


■•  ^ • ■■  yf-  . « ^■ 

/■  ■'!]  ’•  'M 


' ' ' ^ , 

• '•  5H» K'’  ■ ■ ' **  • 1 - ' VA :'  t ■ I • '-'  * w' 

‘ .'  •*'  .■■•'’...■!![ 


65 


discerning, appreciation  is  long  and  arduous,  and  almost 
Impossible  v;ithout  at  least  the  technical  proficiency  of 
the  “gifted  amateur.” 

It  is  a singular  fact  recorded  by  Harrison  in  his 
autobiography  that  he  was  allowed  to  grov;  up  without  mus- 
ical training.  He  was  neither  taught  to  sing  nor  to  play 
any  instrument,  nor  was  he  encouraged  to  cultivate  an 
appreciation  of  music,  despite  the  fact  that  his  mother 
sang,  he  remembers,  very  beautifully.  Apparently  he 
took  the  matter  into  his  ov/n  hands,  for  by  1die  time  he 
reached  adolescence  he  seems  to  have  induced  his  mother 
to  let  him  profit  by  the  musical  opportunities  involved 
in  living  in  a suburb  near  London.  He  mentions  having 
heard  some  great  artists  of  his  youth:  Jenny  Lind,  the 

“huge  basso”  Lablache,  He  saw  Mendelssohn  conduct  in 
1847,  and  as  a young  man  of  thirty  years  was  present  at 
Patti’s  debut. 

Harrison’s  greatest  attainment  in  music  was 
the  sympathetic  response  of  the  appreciative  listener. 
Being  without  tecnnical  knowledge,  he  wisely  abstained 
from  musical  criticism,  showing  therein  a discretion 
urdiappily  missing  in  most  occasional  and  discursive 
essayists. 

Yet  Harrison  may  be  heard  with  respect  when  he 
touches  upon  the  moral  or  socializing  influence  of  music. 
His  tribute  in  this  connection  is  couched  in  an  elevated 
tone. 

“Music  is  the  most  social,  the  most  affecting 


Ib  I 


; •“i/  g^> >'■  V'* ♦i 

t » sw.  . , , „ , „ jfc ,:.. ,^sfe  J|!| 

i ■ '■  \ t - ^«y  h 

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66 


tlie  purest  of  the  arts;  the  one  most 
deeply  connected  with  the  moral  side  of 
civilization.  It  stands  alone  in  the  arts 
as  hardly  capable  of  being  distorted  to 
minister  to  luxury,  evil,  or  ostentation. 

One  can  hardly  imagine  vicious  music,  or 
purse-proud  music,  or  selfish  music.  It 
is  by  its  very  nature  social,  emotional,  and 
humanizing.  Hence  I hold  music  to  be  the  art  w 
which  specially  concerns  all  social  reformers 
and  popular  teachers.  Aiid,  as  we  have  pointed 
out  to  Mr.  Ruskin  and  the  aesthetic  pessimists, 
these  latter  ages  cannot  be  called  deficient 
in  art,  since  they  have  immensely  magnified 
the  most  human  of  all  the  arts  of  sense".  ^ 

The  ethical  ideal  always  dominates  all  others  v;lth 
Harrison.  Music,  and  all  art,  for  tnat  matter,  is  less 
an  end  in  itself  than  a meaiis;  a means,  perhaps,  of 
prosecuting  social  reform,  or  of  arousing  the  religious 
emotion  which  a positivist  feels  v/hen  he  contemplates  a 
beautiful  painting,  or  hears  performed  the  composition 
of  some  great  musical  genius.  This  capacity  for  evoking 
the  solemn,  reverent  awareness  of  the  great  past  of  the 
race  nas,  indeed,  been  consciously  utilized  and  elabor- 
ated by  tile  positivists. 

"An  essential  part  of  our  religious  teaching 
has  been  to  commemorate  the  great  men  of  all 
ages  by  whom  the  mighty  course  of  civiliza- 
tion has  been  achieved. 

Consecpaently , Harrison,  and  the  group  of  positivists 
with  which  he  was  identified,  sponsored  performances  of 
the  typical  works  of  the  great  composers.  Examples  of 
the  best  work  of  Handel,  Bach,  Mozart,  and  Beethoven  were 
presented  frequently,  with  stimulating  addresses  on  the 


1.  Memories  and  Thoughts,  p.  899. 

2,  Autobiographic  Memoirs,  p.  876. 


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67 


careers  of  each.  If  one  may  see  something  a hit  comic 
in  the  conscientious  way  in  which  this  excellent  program 
of  self-cultivation  was  carried  out  hy  this  group  of 
synthesists,  there  is  no  doubt,  at  least,  that  the  occasion 
held  some  aesthetic  as  well  a s ethical  experience  for 
Harrison  himself. 

In  precisely  the  same  spirit  the  group  approached 


art , 

”Art  — the  history  of  art  in  all  its  branches, 
the  lives  of  artists — has  always  formed  an 
essential  element  of  our  scheme  of  education, 
even  of  our  religious  celebrations.  Every 
accessible  collection  of  pictures,  statues, 
fabrics,  or  anticiuities,  every  memorable  pub- 
lic building  has  been  systematically  studied 
and  its  lessons  enforced  in  appropriate  lec- 
tures," ^ 

The  excellence  of  this  procedure  suggests  somehow  the 
diligent  self-improvement  of  industrious  ladies’  clubs 
in  small  American  cities.  Profound  reverence  for  re- 
ceived judgements  rather  than  genuine  experience  must 
ever  be  one  of  the  lamentable  conditions  of  the  demo- 
cratization of  art.  The  danger  must  lurk  especially 
near  ’when  it  is  the  avov/ed  intention  of  the  devotee  to 
accept  receptively  the  ministrations  of  the  arts  to  his 
religious  emotions. 

If  it  would  appear  from  v;  hat  has  b een  said  of  the 
positivistic  approach  to  the  arts  that  they  have  become 
for  Frederic  Harrison  too  sacred  and  chaste  for  the  com- 
prehension of  imaginations  less  untraiimielled  , some  in- 
spection of  his  dramatic  criticism  will  dispel  the  il- 

1.  Autobio g.  p.  S7y. 


KT, 


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68  . 

lusion.  y Harrison  attended  the  Frencn.  plays  in  London 
regularly.  lot  the  least  ot  the  advantages  he  enjoyed 
as  a heritage  irorn  a travelled  youth  was  an  intimate 
acquaintance  v/ith  the  test  theatres  oi*  I’rance,  (he  had 
seen  Rachel  at  her  prime  at  the  The^atre  JFrancais)  , Ger- 
many, and  Italy.  As  one  who  had  enjoyed  and  studied 
the  roles  of  Rlstori  and  Salvini  in  Shakespeare  and  Al- 
fieri,  he  came  to  have  opinions  on  tne  interpretation  of 
Shakespeare,  and  a very  lov/  estimate  generally  of  the 
state  of  the  drama  in  England  as  compared  with  the  contin- 
ent. A pet  abomination  was  one  Samuel  Phelps,  a popular 
Shakespearian  actor  of  the  *60* s,  whose  interpretations 
aroused  in  Harrison  nothing  but  ’’weariness  and  disgust.” 

At  last,  roused  to  white  heat  by  wnat  seemed  to  him  to  be 
a particularly  egregious  Macbeth,  Harrison  found  solace 
in  print.  After  expatiating  for  several  paragraphs  on 
some  of  his  stage  aversions,  he  turns  gently  to  Phelps. 

"The  other  day,  deceived  by  the  critics  and  a 
false  friend,  I went  to  see  the  famous  Phelps. 

As  Mr.  Phelps  (to  speak  plainly)  seems  to  ne 
the  type  of  a bad  actor,  I venture  to  give 
you  the  impression  he  left  on  me.”  ^ 

After  this  candid  statement  of  his  purpose,  Harrison 

gives  a vehement  characterization  of  Phelps’s  ’’stilted 

elocution”,  ’’resonant  pomposity",  and  v;ooden  gesture. 

Here  he  pauses  for  a courteous  reminder. 

”I  have  no  sort  of  ill-will  to  Mr.  Phelps.  I 
doubt  not  he  is,  as  he  told  the  Stratford  Com- 
mittee, the  first  Snake spear ean  actor  of  our 
day.  I have  no  doubt  he  is;  eind  an  excellent 
husband  and  father."  ^ 


1.  Autobiog.  I - 339. 

2.  Ibid.  I - 339. 


} 


'*  ■ V 


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U 


69 


The  cumulative  effect  of  all  this  becomes  overv/helming 

when  he  iterates  the  same  motil'  again  witn  biting  irony. 

"I  nave  no  sort  of  ill-feeling  tov/ards  him, 
except  the  gentle  antipathy  one  has  to  a 
man  who  has  caused  one  three  hours  of  in- 
tense agony,"  1 

for  the  benefit  of  tnose  who  ho.ve  not  witnessed 
the  stupidity  and  mannerism  of  Phelps,  or  heard  his 
"regulation  hov/1,  gurgle,  shout",  and  for  the  edifi- 
cation of  a Phelps-less  posterity,  Harrison  renders 
phonetically  a specimen  of  the  actor’s  delivery. 

"‘Hear  it  not,  DunCan:  for  it  is  a joiell 
That  summons  thee  to  heaven  or  to  hell.  ’ 

This  passage  is  roared  by  Mr.  Phelps  in  this  strain  — 

"ie-urrr  eet  naut,  Duncan;  furr  eet  ees  ur  knale 
Thet  sam-  (rumbling  noises)  -mauns  thee  tur 
haven  o'errrr  tur  hale  (gurgling)."  2 

The  essay  closes  with  the  recommendation  that  Parliament 
close  the  theatres  so  that  the  public  v;ill  be  spared  the 
critics’  blurbs  and  the  actors’  rant.  The  writer  anti- 
cipates the  "little  theatre"  movement  to  some  extent  in 
his  closing  prediction  that  societies  of  amateurs,  if 
well-rrianaged  and  experienced,  could  do  much  better.  Har- 
rison signs  himself  appositely  v/ith  Prynne’s  famous  title, 
"Histriomastix . " 

It  is  Chiefly  in  the  field  or  the  pictorial  and 
plastic  arts  that  Harrison  sets  up  as  a critic.  Here  he 
passes  aesthetic  judgements  based,  as  befits  one  always 
seeking  tne  nos it if . upon  principles  clearly  conceived 

1.  Autobiog.  1-3? 9. 

2.  Ibid.  1-340 


• Kl  .,  '’  V 


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70, 


and  I’irmly  adder ed  to*  Impressionism,  a purely  atmos- 
pheric rendering  of  the  subject,  whether  in  art  or  in 
criticism  is,  to  one  or  Harrison’s  clarity  ol*  mind,  the 
lowest  level  to  which  creative  work  can  sink. 

Beginning  somewhat  in  the  manner  or  the  Platonic 
Socrates,  Harrison  poses  the  central,  fundamental  question, 
in  an  essay  on  "Picture  Exhibitions." 

"I  sometimes  ask  myself,  a plain  layman  vjiio  pre- 
sumes not  to  have  an  opinion  in  these  difficult 
matters,  v/hetner  we  reflect  enough  upon  the 
limits,  sphere,  and  subjects  of  painting,  on 
the  relations 'of  painting  to  life,  to  thought, 
to  religion;  whether  our  painters  are  as  clear 
as  they  Ought  to  be  on  these  great  antecedent 
problems:  — Fhat  can  be  painted,  what  ought  to 
be  the  end  of  a picture,  what,  in  great  ages  of 
art,  did  the  artist  regard  as  his  business  ana 
functiOnVi’.  1 

In  the  same  essay,  from  which  i will  quote  at  consideraole 
length,  he  answers  the  question  of  wnat  are  the  proper 
conditions  of  art,  and  whau  are  the  materials  with  which 
it  may  legitimately  concern  itself. 

"In  all  great  epochs  of  art  the  painter  Ifankly 
accepted  certain  great  canons  of  religious, 
social,  or  artistic  convention.  He  thoroughly 
felt  his  art  to  be  the  expression  of  the  re- 
ligious, social,  and  intellectual  movement  of 
his  time.  He  took  it  to  be  his  business  to 
give  to  that  movement  colour  and  form.  His 
art  was  not  at  all  self-suff icing  and  detached, 
it  was  simply  one  of  the  artistic  modes  of  ex- 
pressing what  was  deepest  and  most  commanding 
in  the  spiritual  world.  The  painter  was  the  ser- 
vant; the  lYee,  willing,  creative  servant,  but 
the  servant  of  tne  priest,  the  thinker,  the  poet,.  / 
and  the  statesman 

The  painter  has  his  own  resources  in  vividness, 
in  colour,  in  harmony,  in  suddenness  and  unity 
of  his  blov;  on  the  imagination  — it  may  be 
also  in  beauty.  But  of  course  he  buys  these 


1.  Memories  and  Thoughts,  p.  525. 


71 


resources  at  the  price  that  he  cannot,  ty 
the  conditions  of  nis  art,  touch  anything 
hut  what  ^ seen,  that -he  is  rigorously 
limited  to  one  moment  of  time,  that  he  can- 
not possibJy  impart  anything;  which  is  not-''- 
known,  that  he  can  'never  explain,  never  con- 
tinue  a story,  teil  nothing  which  it  re--  — 
ciuires  words  to  tell,  and  hy  that  .very  in- 
strument'  rle  uses  he  is  forbidden,  except  in 
partial  and  exceptional  ways,  to  touch  the 
loathsome,  the  horrible,  and  the  spasm.odic . 


Modern  art,  in  casting  orf  outv/orn  conventions 
of  pretty  sweetness,  of  artificiality  and  inanity,  — 
a necessary  task,  which  it  performed  thoroughly  — 
has  swung  into  pure,  exuberant  iconoc].asm,  and  run  the 
gamut  of  realism,  from  the  trivis.l,  odd,  bizarre,  and 
grotesque,  to  what  is  disgusting,  vulgar,  and  nauseating. 


"A  dirty  old  woman  vacantly  staring  at  a heap 
stones,  a pig  wallowing  in  fetid  mud,  a dusty 
high  road  between  two  blank  walls,  a sand-bank 
under  a leaden  sky  — such  are  the  chosen 
spectacles  dear  to  rising  genius."  ^ 

As  one  of  the  interlocutors  remarked  ironically  in  one 

of  Harrison's  imaginary  dialogues 

"The  nev/  rule  is  — Paint  Just  what  you  see, 
but  tauke  care  that  it  is  what  nobody  sees 
but  yourself,  and  what  nobody  could  like  if 
he  did  see  it.  The  business  of  Art  is  to 
shake  up  your  Philistines,  your  Bottles, 
and  Mrs.  Grundys  out  of  their  humdrum  lives 
to  teach  them  howr  queer  and  how  nasty  the  world 
can  be,  and  often  is."  3 


In  a suggestive  essay  on  Rodin  (1912),  Harrison 
gives  in  sober,  detailed  resume,  his  estimate  of  modern 


1.  Memories  and  Thoughts,  pp.  329-51. 

2.  Realities  and  Ideals,  p.  296. 

3.  Memiories  and  Thoughts,  p.  36 u. 


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72, 

tendencies  in  art,  and  defines  still  niore  scrupulously 
his  view  of  the  ultimate  conditions  of  art.  Kodin,  as 
one  who  was  not  merely  a great  artist,  the  greatest 
artist  perhaps,  identified  ¥/ith  the  newer  theories,  and 
who  viTas  in  addition  a distingu.ished  writer,  was  best 
equipped  to  lead  in  the  revolt  from  the  artistic  conven- 
tions which  weigned  so  neavily  on  his  generation.  In 
L * Art  Rodin  repudiated  the  Academy  and  proclaimed  the 
aesthetic  principles  of  the  new  school.  Harrison  resumes 
the  central  doctrine  which  he  proposes  to  criticise,  thus; 

"In  the  first  chapter  of  L* Art  Rodin  expounds 
the  key  of  his  system.  He  opens  with  true 
and  forcible  protests  against  all  kinds  of 
academic  pose.  He  simply  seizes  a spontan- 
eous movemient  which  he  sees  in  his  model.  He 
does  not  place  him  or  dictate  any  set  attitude 

He  goes  on  to  say  that  he  does  not 

reproduce  the  external  surfei.ce  of  what  he  sees, 
but  the  inner  s-pirit  of  what  he  imagines  be- 
neath the  surface,  A cast  will  only  give  the 
outside  form.  Rodin  moulds  the  underlying 
truth.  'I  accentuate  those  lines  which  best 
express  tne  spiritual  state  whicn  ^ am  inter- 
•preting."  ^ 

That,  says  Harrison,  is  an  exact  descrliition  of  the  car- 
icaturist . 

The  artist  is  confined,  so  long  as  he  observes 
the  legitimate  bounds  of  his  art,  to  what  the  eye  can  see; 
not  the  vulgar  eye,  it  is  true,  but  the  trained  eye.  Hor 
is  his  art  a direct  transcript  from  life,  an  attempt  to 
rival  photographic  truth.  It  is  his  aim,  or  should  be,  to 
bring  out  the  hignest  significance  of  the  expression,  with- 
in  the  natural  limits  of  humian  vision.  Harrison  finds  an 


1.  Among  My  Books,  p.  329. 


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^ . -/•  » "/O'  4'  V Ifc  . • i,.,*.  ^J^'ftiBBiVOA  jSilli^JI.^^  'f,:.i|ii 

irr^  .,*,  ,.»  fcir:  ot'dP- 

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'I  . 


apt  Illustration  of  this  point  in  the  Monna  Lisa  of 
Leonardo  and  Pater, 


V3. 


"ITo  photograph  of  the  living  Monna  Lisa  would 
have  given  us  all  that  Leonardo  saw  in  that 
mystical  and  unf athoma,ble  smile.  But  Leon- 
ardo did  not  paint  what  no  eye  ever  saw  or 
could  have  seen  in  the  living  Monna  Lisa,  in 
order  to  express  his.  ovm  views  of  the  lady's 
private  character,"  ^ 


The  Justification  for  the  portrayal  of  physi- 
cally and  moraJly  decayed  specimens  of  humanity,  such 
as  bawds,  criminals,  or  idiots;  the  representation  of 
every  act,  every  conceivable  situation,  whether  trivial, 
umentionable , abnorma,!,  or  bestial,  — all  in  a spirit 
of  coarse  realism  or  broad  satire,  rests,  of  course,  v/ith 
the  new  aestheticism  whose  thesis  is,  that  there  is  no- 
thing visible  which  is  not  a fitting  subject  for  artistic 
treatmient. 


"The  most  repulsive,  unnatural,  unirientionable 
act  or  sight,  when  represented  v^ith  striking 
truth,  becomes,  they  say,  a work  of  art,  and 
according  to  Rodin,  beautiful  by  its  artistic 
power." 

Pausing  to  remiark  that  this  is  "an  absurd  sophism", 
Harrison  continues 

"Every  hour  of  every  day,  in  every  street,  or 
house,  or  room,  v\rith  every  man,  woman,  child, 
or  animal,  in  every  hospital,  prison,  mortuary, 
or  battlefield,  are  infinite  sights  v;hich  can- 
not be  shown  in  art."  2 

Like  Browning's  Caliban,  the  miodern  apostle  of  the 
beautiful  takes  up  nis  position  professionally 


1.  Ibid.  p.330. 

2.  Amiong  My  Books,  p.  335. 


O n,  ^ 


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74 


"Flat  on  Ills  belly  in  the  pit's  ranch  mire, 

With  elbov/s  wide,  fists  clenched  to  prop  his  chin,'^ 

whence  he  may  regard  to  test  advantage  the  strange  beauty 
to  be  found  in  the  hospital  and  the  universally  intel- 
ligible trutns  of  the  bordello.  Whatever  there  is  to  be 
said  for  the  representation  of  the  ugly  and  repulsive  in 
art,  rests  upon  the  assumption  that  the  creative  artist 
atterapts  to  set  forth  the  object  in  its  real  character 
and  significance.  In  much  of  the  vi^ork  of  Rodin,  and  in 
all  of  the  work  of  his  disciples,  Harrison  found  neither 
character  nor  significance.  There  was  only  the  aching 
void  of  the  complete  absence  of  any  informing  spirit 
whatever.  The  "simple  and  true",  "the  old,  eternal  fact", 
the  "sense  of  universal  relation",  "that  nigher  illumin- 
ation which  teaches  to  convey  a larger,  sense  by  simpler 
symbols",  — all  these  phrases,  culled  from  Emerson's 
succinct  essay  on  art^,  express  v/ith  Doric  simplicity  the 
imponderable,  spiritual  element  in  great  creative  art, 
which  is  so  lamentably  absent  in  the  work  of  the  young 
pleinalrists,  atmospherists,  impressionists, 

Glearly  the  dominant  spirit  of  our  genera,tion  is 
one  of  change,  unrest,  ungoverned  expansion.  In  petulant 
irritation  at  the  conventions  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  younger  generation  has  supposed  that  all  convention 
is  inimical  to  tneir  art,  and  may  be  summarily  disiilssed, 
ignoriiig  a large  truth  which  Frederic  Harrison  has  com- 
pressed for  them  into  very  small  space:  "Convention  is 
the  prosody  of  art." 

1.  To  be  found  conveniently  in  Essays  and  Poems  of  Emerson, 
S.P.  Sherman,  p.  261.  I.Y.  1921, 


As  free  spirits,  witii  tiie  technique  of  the  lens 
and  the  caricaturist,  and  the  stiirm dating  theory  that  the 
proper  subject  of  art  is  — everything,  they  range  forth 
to  scour  the  fetid  back  alleys  of  life,  to  bring  forth 
from  these  cruelly  neglected  sources  of  inspiration  what 
constitutes  the  real,  the  vital,  the  abiding  realities 
of  life.  But  they  have  failed  to  animate  the  v»fealth  of 
materia.l  gathered  so  diligently  with  any  spiritual  mes- 
sage, v/ith  the  glamour  of  any  fleeting  moment  opportune- 
ly seized,  or  symbolically  rendered.  Their  exaggeration 
merely  sinks  to  morbidity,  grotesquerie,  banality,  — 
lastly,  lubricity,  the  "Cult  of  the  Foul."  The  artistic 
school  which  has  produced  "The  Old  Strumpet",  "Ugolino", 
"The  Maniac",  "The  Rape  in  the  Stone  Age",  "L'Esclave 
Blanche",  "Le  Repos  du  Module",  aiid  the  "Turpe  Senelis 
Amor",  seems  purposed  to  offer  on  the  altar  of  Humanity 
the  discovery  that  men  are  animals. 


€fi  V .;j*  ti^f  ti:  , 


id,4  j'5<J  titi^J,  ' : ‘j  ‘-t'-*  ■ ^ V '4-i 

* ' ' - ' ',  j"'  ’ ,,i «’.  '■.  * 

: ‘^'•/ .''.  '3  \’>d  ‘ < H-'-  • '■  ■ V?yI-  * '*?  S J ^ a -iJr 


f^.irv".a'i!*>  ^ii.  i.  ,^r  ■^.Oi  <»,«•.''  ,,  ■fin.'fi '.  • .<'x.\).iy  ■■uw  .jt 

';4  ..»>v -tyi  ,'  , 


K';ii  -»>v  *yl  ^7 

■ . ' ■ -‘1.  i;-  . 

■’.4>  » • * ’•  v-iUV*  •>)?  A » • •*•  ;V^' 


48^  'ii-  • • ;o  .■  . ,.y  •; ..  j . ’ f •^'*  j^V.  > >-] 

jf'i  ■ - * *'■  -'j  ' ■''' 

tlOT.MivitAX.:  •>  • . • '^,*v  'V.fi . ,x-  .<  .,,i»jU«a  *1}X  E^lyvj 

i **•’».  C.>  . # f " '.-  * *-t-  ■ ! ”•  “'■’ i I Wf ' I® 

1 « 11.^54.  -^:iV  ■ ^.  ■'  ■■'^•■*  ■‘^ 


V^J 


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*•■' ‘Y«'  . 


76 


IV 

The  Positivist  as  Historian 

I. 

There  is  an  ancient  and  fajniliar  classil'icatlon 
of  historians  by  v;hioh  they  may  all,  from  Herodotus,  Thu- 
cydides, and  Caesar,  to  Bury,  Gardiner,  Froude,  and  Free- 
man, be  deftly  tabulated,  and  by  which  certain  salient 
characteristics  may  be  conveniently  associated  together, 
or  sepai’ated.  Like  all  rules  of  thumb,  it  makes  no 
a,llo;vance  for  individual  variation  or  idiosyncrasy.  By 
it,  historians  are  separated  out  according  to  their 
affiliation  with  the  literary  tradition  of  historical 
writing,  or  the  scientific  school,  represented  on  either 
hand  classically  by  Herodotus  aiid  Thucydides;  in  modern 
England  by  Froude  and  Freeman.  This  classification,  if 
broad  qualifications  are  introduced,  furnishes  an  approach 
to  Frederic  Harrison  as  a historian. 

Harrison’s  view  of  nistory  is  definitely  phil- 
osophic, according  to  the  positivist  theory  of  Comte.  He 
writes  of  "the  great  conception  of  Comte  that  human  af- 
fairs, like  physical  facts,  are  ordered  by  law,"  — the 
implication  that  Comte  first  formulated  the  conception, 
being,  we  may  note  in  passing,  a high  and  entirely  un- 
deserved compliment i 

The  philosophic  approach  to  history  is  not  in- 
compatible v;lth  either  of  the  great  historical  schools, 
and  indeed  is  not  trustworthy  as  a basis  for  classifi- 
cation. In  general,  nowever,  the  literary  historian 


o ^ 

•C^*^  '.H.jJvV.-^l  ',v:  »VL-5^|..i  ;; 


,o!/ 


‘4f>*'  ■ '*^1  ' ' iTSfflRlJ  ^ 


A. 


« ^ i ♦■  * , « - ' ' 


-1  ■•.•'.,fj  . ’ ' ■'•«*.  r3  , ■>,,.,  '<0 

>.v  1-j.t  '.^''i*U  SJfi  -’^^iJ. 


.1*  i.  v>a 


H'iit 


't0U,4» 


%r  ■ 4^'tp;.3f^4|16[ 

' ^ \".a  fr-  ■ 

.^’*•'^0  ■»  r-Ux*'..? 


U 


r 


. ^ ' 


i*''^” '■■ 

'■  I V ■“  '*  ' - ■ ' >v  ,.^ 


.'  X..'  V» 


mv- 


C>*.  V'-’”i  .».  . ^tr..-,  - . 

i’  r\^ 


v:.  t 


Rf 

'•,.  r„  '^' 


%u4  ' I ' -^  ' t.i 

„>  •■  ,..'  '3  ■ V ' .n' 

fel*  ’ ''■'''L'^lMmyi  ■ '■■'4'  ■ 

i|w^  'S-. 

!$i£alx4  *£‘ 


i 'fe  - r ' wft'  .4-(..-< 


??. 

viewB  the  whole  of  history  as  a drejna;  the  scientific 
historian,  being  fully  engrossed  v/ith  his  snail  period, 
doesn't  bother  to  view  the  whole  of  history  at  all.  We 
nay  v/ell  apply  Harrison's  favorite  word,  synthetic,  to  his 
philosophy  of  history. 


"History  means  the  whole  series  of  the  laws 
and  phenomena  traceable  in  the  development 
of  the  human  race,  including  the  prehistoric, 
the  uncivilized,  and  the  oceanic  v/orld,  and 
including  the  history  of  science,  of  philoso- 
phy, of  religion,  of  Industry,  of  manners,  of 
economy,  of  mechanics,  of  art:  in  short,  the 
history  of  society  much  more  than  the  history 
of  war  or  politics." 


How  the  tasic  of  the  historian,  as  Harrison  under- 
stood it,  was  "to  present  a broad  and  glowing  picture  of  a 
past  age  in  its  true  proportions.  Meither  artistic  colour 
now  microscopic  accuracy  suffice  to  do  triis."  Possibly 
v;ith  the  defects  typified  by  J.A.  Proude  or  Macaulay  in 
mind,  Harrison  wrote  "Brilliant  and  ingenious  writing  has 
been  the  bane  of  history;  it  has  degra-ded  its  purpose,  and 
perverted  many  of  its  uses."  Again,  "In  search  of  an  ef- 
fective subject  for  a telling  picture,  men  have  v/andered 
into  strong  and  dismal  haunts." 

instead  of  "a  steady  flame  of  enthusiasm  for  all 
great  spirits",  the  literary  historian  usually  Introduces 
into  his  work  a fatal  purpose,  under  whose  domination  he 
freiiuently  tells  a splendid  narrative  with  moving  passion, 
but  becomes  an  eloq.uent  advocate,  whose  special  pleading 

1.  The  Philosophy  of  Common  Sense,  p.  68. 


'?^%T 

T «iW  \ mm, 

u.iJ,,V-C^4  ^ ‘2i-’ 

T,  • • '"'■  ' ■ ■ ■ 


!&'  ’e*  - V ' ,‘‘  ' ■?-  > ■ •■'■  ■,  \-<v  *•' f.  ''<■■. 

JS‘  d¥  ?;.  tfe'  «*.*  t.nc  ^U*  ■if<f'*  • ' v»  .<»rv .,  a 


*■'  ‘ • ■ V ' . ■ ' - ’ ' ^'/ ■Sf'ii'®  •'.''■viaaiv-' 

..-'f.-r*'/ 


‘''j 


'i4«t,.,  ^ vT.  • ^’1/ 

> . “.•Sf  *:  ’ *Vi-  t*  J|  ,'  ^ 

i.  I . . t ».■  ,-.*n»f  -‘V’^-^ -.w  »?vn  ft: 

y*'  *.-5..i^  , -i;{->  Cvc' 

4r  ,fl  •'  •*>  • (.‘••'  • ,.no m/jt'd* ' 

L.  _j.’  . -li  . . r.  ■'kwL  ■ .i.  3 


“Vi*» 


.--.V  r-  ‘ ’ <ytlQ 

'4*.;  ■*  '^riTjK>-v  ,V  ‘tin  V 

* ^ . . . .r.  sr 


rv  ' L'%  ^ 


^ - I i 


P'i  :d  i : !-•  ■ ••  ^ ya  " 6^lr,  .vop^*^;> 

7 rtUttnr-M-  -'i*  tii-  ^ 

■ -'“  ■ /5  V vi  .•  ” ' ^ \ J ‘ f>, 


V'T , 


,9  r:  V'* 


'J  1 • 


. '’4 » -1  ftu* 


if  i 


"?.'  .'ilk  ’*  II-' tiO!l3/4'.» 

' - ■'.  • ' ■ ^ ''vy  * : .vo^ 


■ />^'.  ’•<f'y*.'v'*:n':-:  VSr’**'-  ■;;  ■ • 'M|n^^' 

; Li*,/'  ■ - ns  .tjl  > ':  ■ xt 


S-  "/vv.  > C '■■  i ..\  ' '«  ;4i,  ', 

. ■■  .... . ,..r:v.i-  . _ . ';m.  /:>: 


. 


■ 'iV  ''^.A,/K■,^  ,w-  Ut^ifcXi 

I-  >'■  w * *.  .„*•  C'Y’  y_ '-  V ’’■ . ^ 

f,u  Iv  «•'•'•'. .s'""'' 

'"v.  ; ;;,^;i^^',eA  ;•  <’..  >'■  •:,<®  1v«w.. 

|fi yf»4sst  Tk!4 1 ; v<  ■><‘>f>?<  1 lis® 

<•„  H:'; ' /■ ' A » . A'i  . ..  y '.^.;£i'.'X'J-’  .'^iiL.-.i,.  ...i 


,■  ■,-i..U  •»$«'{“  .i<iaX:/£?AWr*^ 

I-' r ■'  .V'  'V  ^■"  v ',?8(fci»*v 


5 ^ * i;  f.’  ^ ^1/1/  **•'».  A W fc  ' f ■■■ ' ^ ‘:Jil  .•mMBMj 


m-.i 


KMfWHS^y  ■*-'4i^'  •'  * '■ 

^ v4s  ^ ‘.4 


a* 


P-? — 


78. 

represents  certainly  a magnil'icent  efi'ort,  and  possibly 
the  truth.  This  type  oi‘  nistorian  wins  the  popular  ac- 
claim by  the  pageant  he  presents.  His  service  may  be 
useful  in  correcting  occasional  errors  in  historical 
interpretation,  but  his  influence  on  the  v/hole  is  vitiating 
to  the  public  taste.  His  syriipathies  are  intense,  but  iim- 
ited  in  range]  nis  grasp  of  history  dramatic,  but  not 
philosophic . 

Harrison  lived  his  youth  in  a day  when  a 
supremely  great  literary  historian,  Macaulay,  flourished. 

As  early  as  185b,  Hovi^ever,  v/hen  he  vw.s  twenty -four  years 
old,  Harrison  had  already  outgrov/n  the  spell  of  Macaulay, 
v/hich  had  so  obviously  been  laid  upon  his  schoolboy  comp- 
ositions. In  the  year  in  which  Macaulay  published  the 
third  and  fourth  volumes  of  his  "History  or  England", 
Harrison  wrote 


"Great  heroes,  great  liars,  great  harlots, 
great  footmen,  and  giant  strawberries  have 
for  him  the  same  interest;  they  all  parade 
before  us  in  that  stilted  antithesis.  He 
loves  to  find  some  petty  incident  which  as  he 
thinks  alone  moved  great  events;  he  delights 
in  picking  out  some  weak  point  in  a great  mail, 
and  tnen  he  mouths  over  it  with  tne  same  relish 
that  he  assumes  for  his  virtues.  He  is  so  in- 
aifferent  to  a rational  view  of  human  nature 
that  he  takes  a vulgar  pleasure  in  assuring 
you  tnat  one  of  his  dancing  figures  was  com- 
pounded in  eq_ual  parts  of  Edward,  the  Black 
Prince  and  Titus  Oates." 

The  chief  merit  which  Harrison  could  discern 
in  the  literary  historian  lay  in  his  ability  to  reanimate 


1.  Autobiographic  Memoirs.  1 - p.lu6. 


ffS  at-"  .« . t ■'-  ,%'W  ’..:■ -|r^ 


iJjt-ytCI.  ♦ : ; ?' 
1 .»  ,.  -N.,- 


Wv*  I V* . .. 

...  -* 
•Ov.  **^'’V  i’- 

\ ■•'  . ’.  r 


> ' Jl*  • * '^,- 

*i  -5 

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, v ; ’ A;*f»#W  lU- 


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t ■■ 

tf/'iat-  :■  «‘.'»'&»y 


*v 

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* i.r  f 

S;AS 


-j/i  *v.'  ,v.«av^ 

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< * 


f,,V  ,j  kii  t' 


'^y,.'o'W  V . " ' 'il  ' " ■ ■ 

-isnij  :»^'i  ■ V ; 


79 


the  lire  and  movement  or  past  ages,  and  perhaps  In  his 
insistence  upon  literary  torra  to  a generation  devoted 
to  research,  grossly  neglecting  historical  writing  as 
a species  ol‘  artistic  prose  composition. 

Despite  his  admiration  or  the  virtues  or  the 
literary  historian,  Harrison  saw  too  inany  i'aults  in  him 
rar  too  clearly  to  embrace  Tully  the  traditions  of  his 
school.  ]frcim  the  scientific  historian  he  Yiras  divided 
however,  no  less,  by  his  sjTTipathy,  and  his  breadth  of 
philosophic  outlook.  Such  a spirit  as  his  suffered  some 
crtimping  and  narrowing  when  confined  within  the  limits 
which  characterize  its  scholarship,  as  Harrison  saw  it; 
strict  and  undiscriminating  adherence  to  original  auth- 
orities, intense  specialization,  within  narrov/  limits. 

As  for  the  usefulness  of  facts  as  such,  — "Pacts  are 
infinite,  and  it  is  not  the  millionth  part  of  them  that 
is  worth  kno'wing."  Then  comes  one  of  those  energetic 
outbursts  viThich  mark  less  the  maruier  or  the  style  than 
the  quality  of  the  man  himself.  "What  some  people  call 
the  pure  love  of  truth  often  means  only  a pure  love  of 
intellectual  fussiness."  The  verve  of  this  remiark  is 
typical  of  Harrison  in  his  critical  mood;  its  vigour  an 
invaluable  adjunct  to  one  whose  chief  business  it  was 
for  the  span  of  two  generations  to  address  adri'ioniti ons  to 
his  contemporaries. 

This  pure  love  of  truth  or  of  intellectual  fuss- 
iness sends  the  scientific  historian  plunging  dovrn  into 


I 


^ I I ' 'i« 


'■'1^  ■'.  ? 


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4*  '< 


f^' 


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te.'*-  ' •:*  ■'■  T.  . . •M 


,-  i V o ».  ■ I 


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■m 


80 


"the  great  graveyard  of  the  past",  says  Harrison,  with- 
out plan,  purpose,  or  "breadth  of  view,  to  exhume  the 
dessieated  remains  of  dead  ages,  re-enhalming  them  with 
the  labour  of  a life-time,  into  an  infinite  nuiriher  of 
tomes  full  of  accurate,  worthless  knov/ledge. 

"Lives  are  spent  in  raking  up  old  letters  to 
sho'w  why  or  some  parasite  like  Sir.  T. 
Overhury  was  murdered,  or  to  unravel  some 
plot  about  a maid  of  honour,  or  a diamond 
necklace,  or  some  cons^^iracy  to  turn  out  a , 
minister  or  to  detect  some  court  impostor . " 

When  we  revievi;  the  pitfalls  of  narrov/ness  ard. 
perversion  of  fact  which  oeset  the  literary  histori&m, 
and  the  intellectual  fussiness  which  obscures  any  broad 
view  of  his  subject  for  the  scientific  historian,  as 
Harrisoii  exposes  them,  it  is  clear  that  he  is  closely 
affiliated  with  neither.  He  proceeds  independently  to  a 
view  of  history  as  a branch  of  social  philosophy  — the 
chief  recourse  of  the  inquirer  in  all  political,  soda]., 
all  human  questions  whatever;  as  showing  the  tendencies 

0. f  our  society  and  civilization,  as  being  guide  and  lamp 
for  consistent,  rational  action. 

II . 

At  the  sarae  time  he  voiced  his  youthful  indig- 
nation ’With  Macaulay  who,  he  wrote  "probes  the  heart  and 
motives  of  men  ...  from  the  love  of  scandal,  not  from  a 
sense  of  sympathy",  Harrison  gave  an  elaborate,  compre- 
hensive statemeiit  of  wvhat  the  historian  should  try  to 
accomplish; 

1.  The  Meanin>^  of  History,  u.  9. 


4‘ . ,r^*'  ' '^r  ■;  4, 

*-  ' ’ , • W/  '<91 

^ ' V * . ‘if  ' <l  ‘ *• 


-T*T(^-UU..  ,'^iij;-.|?  44><»w  « » ' iVi  >T 

&'•■.■''•'  ‘■f;?-'-^  “ -"^'4  .•_-v-V;'*'''.**‘‘.v«-^  ■■■' 


O'  ’ t'  ■‘•f/'H » *iAV.^, 

Si  .V  ', ' ‘ '‘■•f'j  ' «: 

■ ';  *.  - ■*  ■ ■•» 


,r 


T;h' 


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, , . . - rr.tl*ii  r-  < ' X 4ft\ 


> *.  • 


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, - >*  vrt  ' - 

yTi  * . .'■^'SIE  -'.H 

^ ^ ' V''i  ■ * * ■ i -■»  ,^'  - O’ 


V ’ 1, 


•; 


r .'.*,■ 


'i 


H'^ 


^?a;i  -^ft: 

* j yj'*f,  :^>«i<-  ;t|' ’ ‘ ••  ^Hvt  \(\  " ‘ * 

..  - ,X  ^'":;.fVl  ,<i  ' ‘ 

^...,tl  , , r^-^Ai  , Vi:,  .^i.  , ,,.,  'l*'<‘  ~>i^‘-'  ^■:---V^}i& 

....  ^ 


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'V 


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. 'V.v^y 


s { . 


■ ' ,-‘*'  r\ 


hu'Lh 


Am  i v,„^.. 


< - \ A ''  ■ 

■ IK  * <»  < 


! V 

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! . ■ . 

<kJ 

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■*l  ■ «,  1 ■ ' ^ 

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i! 


^ • 


ita'i'i 


Sfrfli 


V%/^«UIAIII  ,.i  . ,v  ,.,'A^  ._,  ? fi,  . K4^£|i^i0R,V'  ,'  7,WWk  . JtKPSi 

trSVA’‘JtiL‘i'>:V'  A>u%^&“X,^  V.tt  » 'v....  ‘... '-.Av 


81 


"The  first  duty  of  a historian  is  to  bring  up 
before  us  the  great  acts  and  feelings  v/hich 

spring  most  deeply  from  the  national  life 

what  led  to  them  and  what  'they  lead  up  to; 
the  second  duty  is  to  reanimate  the  spirits 
who  clung  most  closely  for  good  or  bad  round 
the  central  movement  or  its  opposing  forces  — 
yet  always  so  as  to  dwell  upon  their  greatness 
or  their  meanness  with  serious  care,  as  of  men 
vfnose  good  *ws  need  now^and 'whose  evil  is  still 
resting  darkly  on  us." 

This  touches  closely  upon  Harrison’s  theory  of  history. 

By  reanimating  the  spirits  of  past  generations,  identi- 
fied with  the  great  conflicting  forces  of  the  time,  the 
historian  brings  to  his  own  generation  a profound  sense 
of  the  continuity  of  time  and  of  human  experience;  of  the 
dignity  and  aspiration  of  marikind;  most  importantly  of 
the  lesson  which  the  Past  holds  for  the  Present  and  the 
future.  In  the  positive  philosophy,  history  is  more  than 
a story,  a pageaiit,  or  a drama.  It  takes  on  all  the 
moral  attributes  of  a Scripture  lesson.  It  is  indeed 
the  Human  Bible,  v/ith  marked  correspondences  to  the 
Holy  Writ.  It  has  its  genesis,  according  to  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution,  ius  saints  and  prophets,  its  im- 
mortality, the  acts  of  its  own  apostles  recorded  in  its 
pages  — all  designed,  as  the  Bible,  to  guide,  instruct, 
inspire,  and  elevate  posterity. 

In  his  historical  writings  Harrison  has  demon- 
strated the  same  q.ualities  of  mind  which  distinguish  his 
literary  criticism;  generous  sympathy  ivith  widely  dif- 
ferent types  of  culture  aiid  character,  a judicial  sanity 
in  weighing  achievement,  or  separating  the  gold  from  the 

1.  Autobiographic  Memoirs.  I - p.  167.  Printed  in  italics. 


Vfl 


82 


dross,  and  a peculiar,  cliaracteristic  faculty  for  the 
keen  appreciation  of  the  value  to  our  culture  of  a new 
view  of  men  or  movements  formerly  grasped  Imperfectly, 
or  the  elaboration  of  soriie  phase  of  history  but  faintly 
glimpsed. 

The  one  single  "period"  to  v/hich  Harrison  devoted 
himself  more  than  any  other,  that  of  the  Byzantiiie  Um- 
pire, illustrated  his  characteristic  point  of  view  in 
these  matters.  In  the  Rede  Lecture,  which  he  delivered 
at  Cambridge  in  1900,  Harrison  cited  the  Eastern  Empire 
as  striking  witness  to  the  essential  unity  of  history. 

"There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  tnat  Byzantium  has 
been  a historic  city  for  some  2560  years;  during 
tne  whole  of  tnat  period,  v/ith  no  real  creak 
in  her  life,  it  nas  been  the  scene  of  events 
recorded  ill  the  annals  of  mankind;  it  has  been 
fought  for  and  held  by  men  famous  ih  world 
history,  it  has  played  a substantive  part  in 
the  drama  of  civilization.  Son  singular  a' 
seg,uence  of  historic  interest  can  ha,rdly  be 
claimed  for  ahyj_city  in  Europe,  except  for 
Rome  herself," 

Correcting  the  unders tandlng  of  the  general 
public,  and  joining  battle  v/ith  prejudice,  bigotry,  and 
rhetoric,  have  furnished  Harrison  with  a life  long  oc- 
cupation. Tne  inadequately  recognized  history  of  the 
Roman  Empire  on  the  Bosphorus  formed  a great  lacuna  in 
our  historical  literature  which  Harrison  laboured  eirdently 
and  tirelessly  to  fill.  By  his  Rede  Lecture,  numerous 
articles  and  reviews,  a tragedy  improvised  upon  Byzantine 

1,  The  Meaning  of  History,  p. 309-10. 


i..,: 


; «’Aw  -i-U  SivvViVOi ',|j>  i,  , f.  .':<Z^^‘ 


^ ^-vi  -.u  V, 

■ ■ F ■■*  t , ' ^ Jr  _ 

'J'vf.:.'  ’I  ^ vXi  J ....  .vi,'  ‘ 

■ j .•]: ■Xi 


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■ *f^'rn  ‘ / nv  ' '■»♦  ■'/v'?  " Ja  '.^7%Wt  ' 

'UVif  -•'■  i^'•-J.^Ti  ^ j Jkcjufi' (fiC 


,!  * ^ ^■ 


0 


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i.,j..'i  i .•*<>'.•“■  » , 

1*1, . w.  * i,  ,fll..  .*i 


- . / *♦  ' ^ -i.ri.  ^,4  ' r-x^*j£: 

fc-f=*v‘W#*-  ■■  tf-y  rti  fcHt'-.  Ill  >9«if 

B*.. .t«si*'<  •Vi^«J'.  • 'u’.'CJ'n. .■•■;: jrae's  i.f 

■ ::ry'-'^' 


if  ’ A*^* 


■ \v,.  /■-'..  4jlt' i'-rai'  **'■.■'■'  f ' .,,;”c^.'<^'''< 

’.;  pir^ -!<iia 


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\ 

, - •, . . .■  •...  — ^ ■ 

rt.  I \k: — 3‘;.ife/..:;’  , .’ 


kSiS^'-*'' 


4J. 


83 


history,  called  "hieephorus  — A Tragedy  oi'  i^ew  Rome", 
and  "Theophano  — a Romantic  Monograph",  he  haa  devoted 
himseir  to  the  test  of  his  scholarly  and  literary 
ability  to  "me  reclamation  oi‘  the  low-lying  Icinds  of 
the  Byzantine  period". 

"Authentic  facts  in  deep  colour"  was  John 
Morley's  succinct  summarization  of  "Theophano".'^  In 
this  booh  Harrison  attempted  to  reconstruct  a period  in 
the  ni story  of  tne  Eastern  Empire  under  the  guise  of 
romance,  dealing  particularly  with  the  relation  of  tnat 
portion  of  Christendom  to  the  advancing  sword  of  Mahomet. 

Unlike  the  novels  of  Scott,  Kingsley's  "Hypatia", 
and  Bulwer's  "Rienzi",  in  "Tfieophano"  romance,  not 
history,  is  made  of  secondary  importance.  Harrison's 
purpose  was  not  to  adorn  his  romance  with  the  verity  of 
historical  fact,  but  to  dye  his  history  in  the  imperial 
purple  of  romance.  The  story  falls  in  the  reign  of 
Hicephoras  Phoeas,  whose  moral  catastrophe  is  recounted 
in  tne  book.  He  succeeds  to  the  throne  of  Romanus,  son 
of  Constantine,  and  to  his  wife,  Theophano,  one  of 
those  fascinating,  beautiful,  bad  women  who  figure  so 
largely  in  the  pages  of  historical  romance  and  romantic 
history.  She  transfers  her  affections  to  another  soldier, 
Tzimlskes,  wnose  nardy  virtues  charm,  for  the  moment,  ner 
luxurious  mind.  Hicephorus  is  murdered.  Tzimiskes  as- 
cends the  throne,  and  banishes  Tneophano  to  a solitary 
Islfind,  in  order  to  obtain  the  recognition  of  txie  Patriarch 

1.  The  other  Dook,  "Hicephorus"  was  not  to  be  had  in  the 
University  of  Illinois  library. 


r 


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FT  ".'  I.'v  ■’  1 


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■•■,  l ■ ■ . • 


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! 


84 


Thus  ends  Theophano's  life  story  by  a blighting  stroke 
of  dramatic  irony. 

It  is  a crowded  canvass,  Harrison  spreads,  con- 
taining many  episodes,  lively  axid  picturesque  descriptions 
of  the  great  medieval  cities,  Byzantium,  Rome,  Cordova 
under  the  Abassids,  painted  with  the  insight  of  the  ex- 
perienced historian.  The  qualixy  of  the  action  is  melo- 
dremiatic,  the  style  not  always  free  ifom  excess,  but 
described  by  John  Morley  as  "direct,  pov/erful,  plain,  with 
none  of  our  latter  day  nonsense  of  mincing  and  posturing." 
In  its  larger  aspects  the  book  presents  romantically, 
but  soundly,  the  political  and  social  force  of  tenth 
century  Eastern  monasticism,  aiid  the  clash  of  Eastern 
and  Western  civilization,  as  the  crest  of  the  advancing 
'wave  of  Mohammedanism  beat  upoii  the  Bosphorus. 

Harrison  wrote  three  short  biographies,  excellent 
manuals  for  the  student  and  general  reader,  in  which  he 
speeiks  v/ith  an  authoritative  yet  virell-modulated  voice  on 
Cromwell,  Chatham,  axid  V/illiam  the  Silent.  Certain 
attributes  are  emphasized  in  more  than  a casual  manner. 
They  bind  the  trio  of  great  n&ines,  eo  far  apart  in  the 
sphere  of  their  action,  into  something  like  a unity  of 
spirit,  and  give  some  notion  of  what  the  positivist  his- 
torian admires  in  his  heroes. 

it  is  a fundtunental  trait  of  the  positivist 
mind,  as  of  tne  positivist  px.ilosophy,  to  be  eminently 
concerned  with  practical  results,  v/ith  the  immediate  end, 
leaving  to'  tne  metaphysiciaxis  theologians  and  profession- 


/'V  ;'  r ’"I! 

.nva‘'^^!T  Y ’-'^/  amiiTiniEU.  • 

t »<  * .. 


Ar |(C  * 1, -i4i  ri-  ',  <f 

f ' 

■ V !.'■  ^^ilrf^s  •?>. ,. 

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’...Ouv^  ' ^ v-i. 


; ••  *'?  ‘ : • • A ''-<4;  7V,v^  • I 


I ' *•  '■ ',..!i'  ■'’  ,,y'\  ' ' f4*'7‘‘  '"i 

’j-  ’ ''’,^i  K'  ' ,■  ■■i'i'.^, 

I 4.'..  ,-v’  , .V  ,4>f  .'  : -.  ’«  ‘ •>#  . -.  . ■ ■••  ■'  \ V 

•-'v''  •{» I'V  iiiU'v  ^r;  tf.JL:''(: : J '4* * 

M I ■i*./'  1 . ^ \ h^’VL-  1 ^ >a^rM$  JCrO  r.  . ft ' .M 


'>.■41 


yi 


85 


al  idealists,  whatever  tlieir  tag,  to  carry  on  tiieir 
brisk  trade  in  abstractions.  The  great  ciuality,  then, 
which  Harrison  saw  as  uniting  Gromv/ell,  Chatham,  a^id 
William,  which  made  them  so  effective  in  action,  was 
their  onDortiinism.  It  is  the  keeping  the  eye  on  the 
object,  "the  sublime  common  sense"  of  Cromwell,  the 
active  vital  principle  of  faith  in  Chatham,  the  "v/ari- 
ness  and  patience"  and  prudence  of  William,  which  Harrison 
celebrates,  ^fhen  he  speaks  of  opportunism  he  means  some- 
thing different  and  higher  than  what  is  connoted  by  the 
word  in  common  usage.  He  means  courage,  prudence,  tact, 
vigor,  diplomacy,  the  willingness  to  compromise  when 
coTiipromise  promises  to  achieve  eventual  success.  I 
understand  him  to  mean  by  opportunism  all  the  practical 
virtues,  exercised,  like  Matthev/  Arnold’s  dogruatism,  on 
the  rifjrnt  side. 

Harrison’s  attitude  toward  Cromwell  lies  some- 
where between  the  disparagement  o^‘  the  traditional  view, 
and  that  of  Carlyle  and  Theodore  Roosevelt.  Harrison 
admires  him  less  as  a "strong  man",  sufficient  unto 
himself,  and  a law  unto  himself,  than  as  the  representa- 
tive, in  the  long  triangular  duel  between  the  king,  Par- 
liament, and  the  army,  of  liberty  of  conscience,  Har- 
rison’s antagonism  tov;ard  all  sectarianism  flares  out 
in  his  arraignraent  of  Puritanism.  The  "morbid  fanaticism" 
of  the  Ironsides  he  laid  to  the  hot  Hebraism  vfnich  they 
imbibed  from  their  Old  Testaments.  The  cruelty  of  the 


I : ■ ’rv 


f '►'  ■'^^*^*''*"^' '■'■‘t-f**  = i'lL  **iu.*t^  , 

C-r*  ,Uj^*,-'i'«iCr  . ; > *> ftoare^. -k_ ini.^i  kji . .>> i ^ .'. '. . . .ii 


■ T‘- ' ; 'Vi 


1.  c ':-x.' 


X 

•4i..‘  .AVJ  ?}  ..‘ 


j r •,  »'tl?'**li-  '><r 


; 'o0ix 

. *-*;‘^  ’ •'  ^ 'i^'^  **’^  % J| 

k'^;  ■ , ><»{*! i‘*t'j ' «i(»ew''': 

‘i,M,-i  iv.  i ttv<  , .' 

• • •■■  ' ' •■'■'  :r->.%^.  >ii^  '^V^k’  ■ '^J^l 

, ■ . >*J5  »?X;r-v.  . Vt'  ; ^^/OSSfc-V 'K‘ 


■ i-  •■  * ' . ■ 0.5, v>"  Ajyjtr;^’  ; W..|v: 


,:A.^i  :■  .«4  ■ /..  , ij. .;  ‘Xl’ ' ’»1  ' ItH  ■ ' /H.  O'  T' 

' -.  ' ' ■ '^  ,\':'v'  "iT^''*  ; 

t«»x - ^1  ■ ' i 

fv  , . . ■ /f , W ' :-i  ,•'•  i. . „.  , 


I ■■■  ; ' > 'i  ’V'' 


Wi'fj  ft>;  If 


.-*j  i'gi  ■ j -^ifu:  V',  ^;i^>ijt,j^:;ji. 

' ‘ ■'  '“  ' ' ..■V. 

••i-!'  ■;  : \.  \.y  : “ 

v.-  A;  .f  . .2  :•■•  • ■••  H f * r*»lf-’  •.  *1  i.^ 

' • " 'ivi^'  „ <Vtv«;X  ••^'•*'  •:•■  ' ■.” 

"'-  ’ . : . (JX.  '-  i.'v*  '■  ."  V vC.-'  -i 

^vr'icn  i::  ..If  iftj;  |gf»: 


'•  ^ - - ’ r*  <i:ivi 


86 


English  Ccinipaign  in  Ireland,  Harrison  attributes  less 
to  Cromwell  than  to  the  Puritan  mind.  "It  is  one  oi*  the 
oL^uming  charges  which  the  Puritan  theology  has  yet  to 
answer  at  the  bar"  — not,  it  will  be  noticed,  the 
Bar  of  Judgement,  but  — "of  humanity.""^ 

Of  the  movement  which  culminated  in  the  Common- 
wealth, Harrison  wr  ot  e 


"Its  dominant  spirit,  Puritanism,  v/as  fatally 
impracticable  for  constructive  work  a s a pol- 
itical and  social  scheme.  This  the  sublime 
common  sense  of  Oliver  forced  upon  him,  step 
by  step  overpo'wering  the  intense  devoutness 
of  his  faith.  And  ever  larger  as  grew  the 
statesman,  less  and  less  was  Oliver  the  rigid 
Puritan,  thaaliteral  Bible  zealot."'^ 

It  was  premature,  inadequately  prepared  for,  supported 
solely  by  the  genius  of  one  great  statesman.  Harrison's 
portrait  of  Cromwell  as  he  reveals  himself  to  us  to- 
day throuf^h  the  medium  of  his  extant  speeches,  is  char- 
acteristic of  his  illuminative  prose  style  at  its  best. 


"V/e  hear  the  very  beat  of  a great,  generous  heart; 
we  see  the  flash  of  £i.n  heroic  temper,  full  of 
trust,  of  sublime  desires,  of  unshaken  courage. 
The  religious  hopes  are  not  ours;  the  cast  of 
mind  is  one  which  only  by  an  effort  we  can  pic- 
ture to  ourselves;  the  mixture  of  practical  ’ 
business  with  the  promises  and  manifestations 
of  God  to  the  saints  is  to  us  so  strange  as  to 
sound  hardly  sane.  Yet  such  is  the  greatest 
attempt  ever  made  in  history  to  found  a civil 
society  on  the  literal  words  of  Scripture."'^ 


1.  Oliver  Cromwell.  London.1900.  p.l40. 

2.  Ibid.  p.  810. 

3.  Ibid.  p.  189. 


1 


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'«  V .rtu'.,‘i  . . . • '.'  = -'A  v/'iifm.  .'/ 


ff  4 M>fi  -ijttt  ,^iy  ji^i ,^. 


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I "*  ' <^i*  ’<•*  il  . ri  , 

* .*  ' - »’  *0  '4.  n.tiij; 

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"m  ■ i? 

, 0 r^  .,  - , Gt'  >;  jf.  *\i^()Jjf.iod' -» *,  ^j 


V'. ,.  ,’;  *.-. . ••  ■ t.  ■ •♦wising  ,.;.j:tjjp;j:i 


^ . .'  .IM'.  'i‘-'.  *. 


87 


The  United  Kingdom  which  Cromwell  founded, 

Lord  Chatham  expanded  into  an  empire.  The  navy  Crom- 
’well  started,  Chatham  made  the  world's  greatest  sea- 
pov;er.  Chatham  advanced  his  imperial  ideas  hy  schemes 
which  sometimes  demonstrated  not  only  consummate  state- 
craft but  a complete  absence  of  scruples;  nor  does 
Harrison  gloss  the  fact.  But,  as  he  points  out  that 
"the  morality  of  such  a national  policy  cannot  nov/  be 
defended  or  excused."  he  points  out  generously  that 
Chatham  is  to  be  judged  by  the  stcindards  of  his  own  day, 
since  "the  stcuidards  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  not 
those  of  the  tv;entieth  century".  (Written  in  1905). 

There  is  no  more  attractive  figure  in  the  history 
of  the  struggle  for  liberty  of  conscience  than  that  of 
V/illiaiTi  the  Silent,  whose  stormy,  but  heroic  life  v;as 
founded  upon  a "noble  error",  one  which  he  shared  with 
Harrison  and  his  positivist  associates,  — a "serene 
vision  of  spiritual  fellowship  in  humanity  — a vision 
which  was  opened  to  him  alone  amongst  the  men  of  thought 
and  the  men  of  action  in  his  age  — blinded  him,  more  than 
a statesman  should  be  blinded,  to  the  madness  and  theol- 

•) 

ogical  bigotries  in  the  midst  of  which  his  work  was  cast." 

In  r eligion  and  in  diplomacy  ?/illiam  exhibited 
the  fundamental  virtues  of  opportunism.  The  political 
philosophy  of  the  day  was  represented  by  Machiavelli ' s 
"Prince".  Except  in  his  intense  patriotism,  and  his 
hatred  of  religious  fanaticism,  intolerance  and  bigotry, 

1.  William  the  Silent.  London.  1905.  p.236. 


nfi’T'  TJ' 


’ ■ -^  I ; - . ’ •' 


<i 


y'*  " ^ - ‘Vi "” ' ' ■ 

,'9  ,^-  .,  ,v:.  i..  I-  I" 


•r  -'.;  - V*.  •*»  ./•♦?•  i’  5l^*>ita-‘  »4* 

‘ ..9E ' • ’’’  . » •’»>•:  i-#  • ' „ Si  ■■  >* 

^‘  ■ ' ■?>' 


^^»vr.>rrvi  . >;/.Ss35'r^^ 


*%kI 


b';.'.‘i! 


r’i.i  /i  ;>l'(|,'\|^R  , *'  i ' ‘ t '^4  • ,; . , '■'il  '•'iji'i^ 

-&  y .';*w  J 1 tj»-- *.  ,i'  . u'.. 

•4  ‘ ^ ■ .-r..  - '*■  • ' - .w  • -r  ■ n I -ft.  - ^X,  jj 


i4i%  ,4 


^3 


. . . , i*  -»  -•■  JRJAI  -,  ** 

-o  <^5".‘ wX-' ■ 

■ #•'’*!? 


■i  r 


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ffc;  '•'■'J 


> 


' "■  '•'  ''ff™ ''"  ‘"'■"  i^'^'- 

>;  •'  ■"  . ■ ..V'j:*-  ■'''■•'’■.*'7^ 


‘r.v  - >•’.•  . .V-  :V‘ '• 

^ ■!  ■ "I  ..  ♦ • j..'  . V J#  ;V.v. . 


k)'rV 


v^au^n^,'  - ‘■V®"  ■/...■'^•i-rf  . ‘MJUii  »-i'f  .'(it,'«p».:.,.(/i 


l*>  . . ^ ^ ' . ' * t 'i  , j»  ^ ; '■  ’ ■■'■  ■■  ,,  ' *' ''^"* 

' :■  I r.A (ti -^wl^  ■ V-'; 4. ■?;•.  -i'---.,. . % 

lifMX  'iri.  <‘j  r'-  \i 


was  a man  of  his  age.  Yet  his  battle  v/ith  Spain 
for  the  independence  of  the  Netherlands,  according  to 
Harrison’s  estimate,  cast  a wide  influence, 

"It  directly  inspired  the  Revolution  in 
England  of  the  seventeenth  century,  as 
also  that  of  America  of  the  eighteenth 
century;  and,  hy  its  intellectual  in- 
fluences, it  indirectly  contributed  to 
the  Revolution  in  f ranee."  ^ ' 

The  final  Judgement  passed  hy  Harrison  on  Cromwell,  Chatham 
and  William  the  Silent  Illustrated  the  breadth  of  his 
historical.-horizon.  They  answer  for  their  acts,  not 
according  to  a refined  code  of  personal  morality,  nor 
to  tne  idealism  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  but  "at  the 
bar  of  humanity  and  civilization."  It  is  after  a 
careful,  informed,  estimate  of  the  residuum  of  good  they 
left  behind  them,  that  Harrison  ventures  to  call  crom- 
'well,  Ohatham,  and  V/illiam  the  Silent  great  opportunists. 


1.  ?/illiam  the  Silent,  p.  239. 


/ ' ■'  '■■  ' 5 

^ I >!.■  ■ ' - r,t 


A . 


'■>  «-  JlT*  ‘ > I *»'• 


U. , •.  ^ w i ^ 4 1 4.-4  - ."jrS  ^ .8K 

^*4fc  ,a  ,1, 


. V I ..  -,  • "“’'t  ^ 41’*  , 

'_.  , .v-.Mii  4^V^te-rv  ■■■-  -, ‘^0  /r„.,  -■  ■ 

'>  ■-'••  . ! •4'/’'^  3 V^j  •'“ 

- • . ^ - y :•/  » ; -^  1 ^ :^ti ' , r#  ^v■.  . ; ., 


, 


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l*h 


wW^": 


V 


The  Literary  Criticism  oi‘  i^Tederic  Harrison. 

I. 

The  tvj-entieth  century  has  produced  few 
enough  c ritics  with  either  the  inclination  or  the 
hardihood  to  interpret  to  us,  or  to  defend  the  gen- 
eration which  we  have  supplanted.  Among  their  modest 
number,  Frederic  Harrison  occupied  a position  almost 
unique,  by  virtue  of  his  vast  reading  and  scholar snip, 
his  critical  integrity,  and  his  patriarchal  age.  He 
v/as  reared  upon  the  early  Victorians,  a contemporary  of 
tne  middle  Victorians,  and  flourished  as  an  elderly 
gentleman  v/ho  contuanded  respectful  e.ttentioii,  when 
the  late  Victorians  v»:ere  in  flower. 

Harrison  was,  indeed,  the  last  of  the  Victorians. 
Living  for  more  than  tv/o  decades  into  the  tv/entieth  cen- 
tury, he  alone  of  his  contemporaries,  with  the  exception 
of  John  Morley,  lived  to  be  an  effective  force  in  the 
twentieth  century,  to  which  he  was  attached,  it  might 
be  said,  purely  in  an  advisory  capacity.  In  his  own 
generation  he  knew  Ruskln,  Tennyson,  George  Eliot, 
Browning,  Spencer,  Meredith,  Trollope,  the  great  Ameri- 
can literary  pilgrims,  Lowell,  Motley,  and  Emerson; 

Huxley,  Arnold,  Froude,  Symonds,  Leslie  Stephen,  Walter 
Bagehot,  Garlyle,  Morris,  and  John  Stuart  Mill. 

As  a prominent  publicist,  critic,  and  the 
acknowledged  leader  of  a religious  and  social  prograJt, 


w 


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90. 

Harrison  obse^rved  intiiuately  tne  political  and  intel- 
lectual lire  of  nineteenth  centurjA  Englerxa.  As  a 
scholar  he  studied  its  literature.  To  the  twentieth 
century  he  remained  in  lonely  eminence,  the  unique, 
revered  survivor  of  a past  age.  However,  it  is  not  as 
a souvenir,  but  as  a critic  of  literature,  that  I present 
him.  If  we  are  to  a ccept  his  own  testimony,  Harrison 
was  neither  a critic  nor  man  of  letters.  He  was  a 
Positivist.  "I  no  more  pretend  to  be  a man  of  letters  than 
I pretend  to  be  a politician",  he  wrote.  And  again, 

"I  heve  always  felt  myself  more  or  less  of  an  amateur. 
i'Tor  do  I remember  to  have  wasted  an  hour  in  thinJcing 
about  style,  or  about  conditions  of  literary  success." 
Indeed,  he  was  "quite  indifferent  to  literary  form". 

Let  us  not  take  such  ingenuous  disavowals  too  seriously, 
while  remembering  the  fundamental  truth  that  his  me^Jor 
interest  did  lie  in  other  directions.  To  teach,  to 
moralize,  xo  reform  — in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  if 
any  good  sense  does  remain  — to  urge  upon  his  contemp- 
oraries opinions  they  were  ever  somewhat  reluctant  to 
emorace  — the  teaching,  moralizing,  reforming  an 
oeing  rrantcly  posixivlstlc  ana  Comxian,  was  in  truxh  Har- 
rison's vocation.  Withal  he  was  xhe  most  literacy  of 
the  positivists,  as  he  was  certainly  the  most  positivis- 
tic or  men  of  lexters. 

An  important  qualification  of  a great  literary 
critic  is  that  he  make*  tew  mistakes.  It  is  the  one  on 
which  the  admirer  of  Harrison  would  like  to  dwell 


V 




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91 


longest,  and  iTiOst  glowingly.  He  nas  something  of  the 
genius  for  form  and  tone  with  which  he  credits  Arnold, 
catholic  sympathies,  and  a rare  oalance  and  sanity  of 
mind  which  make  for  correctness  in  his  literary  judge- 
ments. He  reviewed  the  wnole  of  tne  work  of  his  poet, 
or  novelist,  or  essayist,  applied  nis  own  clearly  con- 
ceived critical  "touenstones" , and  responding  sensitive- 
ly to  t he  weight  of  the  test  critical  opinion  behind 
him,  he  placed  his  man,  easily,  gracefully,  lucidly. 

II. 

One  is  reruinded  in  this  connection  of  the 
melancholy  fact  tnat  it  is  hard  to  be  botn  original  — 
and  right.  The  union  of  correctness  and  original  force, 
if  not  well  nigh  impossible,  is,  at  least,  extremely 
dissoluble.  In  the  mind  of  Harrison  they  were  never 
united.  For  xhe  purpose  of  illustr acting  the  point,  it 
mety  be  well  to  set  the  distinctive  qualities  of  mind  of 
the  original,  creative  critic,  over  against  those  of  the 
right-minded,  or  scholarly  critic. 

The  original  man  is  audacious.  He  is  a trail- 
breaker,  and  a pioneer.  He  v/elcomes,  and  often  insti- 
tutes innovations.  As  a literary  critic,  he  is  temper- 
Eonentally  inclined  to  the  belief  that  there  are  still 
ini'inlte  possibilities  for  tne  develoiEent  of  new  form 
and  expression  in  literature.  He  believes  that  the  ex- 
perience Of  his  own  generation  is  unique,  tnat  it  nas  a 
unique  message  for  numanity,  and  that  the  m»odes  of  ex- 
pression of  tne  past  must  be  expanded  or  discarded  al- 


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togetner  in  face  or  rhe  new  needs.  Sued  a critic 
v;lli  looic  witn  interest  and  sympatiiy  upon  most  to  ms 
of  experimentation;  he  will  cultivate  and  contrlDute 
importantly  to  the  nurture  of  tne  current  crop  of 
"young  Intellectuals".  He  is  violent  in  his  aversions, 
most  of  which  centre  upon  certain  literary  traditions 
which  he  thinks  are  outworn  and  pernicious  in  their 
influence.  His  sympEitnies  are  alv/ays  distinguished  by 
their  intensity  ratner  tnan  tneir  breadtn.  Within 
their  limits,  he  is  occasionally  capable  of  .swift,  in- 
tuitive flashes  v/hlch  scorii  the  snail’s  pace  of  logic, 
and  arrive  unerringly  at  truths  hitherto  unsuspected. 
Outside  the  range  of  his  own  peculiar  sympeithies,  he  is 
also  capable  of  being  grossly  unjust,  and  of  falling 
into  appalling  absurdities  in  his  literary  estimates. 

In  sum,  he  will  be  something  of  a creative  artist, 
working  in  the  medium  of  crltlclsiri,  a discoverer  of  nev; 
voices,  a revealer  of  nev!  beauty,  a critic  producing 
v/ork  of  uneven  texture,  — a distinguished,  but  not 
irfimortal  servant  of  his  own  age. 

The  critic  notable  for  his  uniform  co  preset  ness 
is  of  the  scholarly,  or  synthetic  miiid.  ’vYith  the  same 
catholic,  expajisive  gesture  of  the  original  critic,  but 
Y/ith  a cool,  balanced,  comprehending  mind,  he  examines 
the  grist  from  all  mills  v/ith  the  saDie  detached  placidity 
By  temperament  he  shuns  and  anathemizes  all  that  is  im- 
pressionistic and  subjective.  He  is  Justi  and  even 
amiable  in  his  dicta,  but  communicates  iio  Parnassian 


fe>  ffi'^  V7A0.1  "ik%  ■ %'H-^.  i.ai^  Uu.  t».  Mk- ' t0i^  %*  * 

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93 


I'ire  to  young  entnusiasts.  Unlike  his  volatile  anti- 
type,  he  proceeds  cautiously  by  tne  "touchstone"  or  com- 
parative method  in  forming  critical  estimates.  7/hlch 
is  to  say,  he  aims  to  know,  in  the  old  phrase,  tne 
best  that  has  been  thought  and  said  on  whatever  subject 
may  be  in  hand,  and  to  discover  whether  his  generation 
is  saying  anything  nevi^,  and  ir  so,  hov/  well  they  are 
SEtying  it;  lastly,  whether  it  is  worth  saying.  He  leans 
heavily  upon  tradition,  and,  barring  his  espousal  of 
some  special  literary  nostrum  or  panacea,  will  not  die 
young. 

Frederic  Harrison,  whose  critical  portrait  is 
sketcned  above,  had  of  course  pet  aversions  and  alTections 
aplenty.  But  fortunately  they  were  primarily  religious 
and  philosophical,  rather  than  literary,  and  where  they 
did  encroacn  upon  literature  proper,  he  was  restrained 
from  any  important  aberration  by  tne  second  quality  oi 
the  great  critic,  tnat  of  "keeping  an  eye  well  open  to 
the  true  proportion  of  any  single  book  in  the  great  world 
of  men  and  affairs,  and  in  the  mighty  realm  of  general 
literature".  With  Arnoldian  equity,  catholicity  of 
taste  based  upon  a synthetic  philosophy,  and  the  dis- 
position for  generous  appreciation  of  a meliorist,  Har- 
rison was  able  to  present  in  crystalline  form  the  best 
that  was  held  in  solution  by  the  better  criticism  of  his 
generation. 

III. 

Frederic  Harrison  has  nov/here  drawn  up  a formal 


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94 


statement  or  his  critical  apparatus,  but  the  import&Jit 
elements  constituent  in  it  stand  out  clear 3.y  enough  in 
his  essa3^s.  i'or  exam.ple,  qualixy  or  work  alone  does 
not  surrice.  Harrison  exariiines  the  g.uantity  as  well. 
?/ide  literariT-  contacts  are  a legitimate  item  ror  con- 
sideration. Cosmopolitan  rame  is  more  impressive  than 
a merely  national  vogue.  Kis  reasons  ror  denying  i‘irst 
rank  to  Lamb  and  Keats  illuminate  nis  principles  or 
Judgement . 

“The  rirst  rank  in  prose,  as  in  verse,  is 
reserved  ror  those  who  have  embalmed  great 

and  virile  thoughts  in  perrect  Torm  

That  is  to  say,  the  supreme  seats  are  i'or 
v;ork,  'wherein  the  thought  is  superior,  or 
at  least  equal,  to  the  rorm,  -wherein  the 
thought  is  proround,  large,  various;  where 
there  is  mass  ana  volume  or  splendid  achieve- 
ment, power  over  vast  numibers,  all  ages,  ‘ 
races,  and  symipathies . “ ^ 


Harrison,  like  Carlyle,  conceives  or  the  great 
poet  as  something  or  a seer  or  prophet  or  priest.  In 
this  vein  he  expresses  his  opinion  or  the  limitations 
01*  Tennyson's  genius  v/nen  he  says  that  Teiinyson  “gave 
the  age  a voice,  but  did  not  give  it  a raith."  The 
essay  in  which  this  phrase  occurs  (Tennyson,  Ruskln, 

Mill,  and  other  Literary  Estimates,  H.Y.  lyuu)  illus- 
trates Y^ell  the  critical  raculties  7/hich  Harrison 
possessed,  and  the  service  he  was  able  to  render  in  their 
exercise. 

However  little  Tennyson  today  may  need  the  ser- 
vices or  a calm,  sober  essayist  to  call  1‘or  a restrained 

1, Tennyson,  Ruskin,  Mill,  and  other  Literarv  Estimates.  h'.Y. 

1900.  p.  178.  ; 


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26 


adiuiration  or  his  poetic  achievement,  such  was  not  the 
case  when  Harrison’s  Tennyson.  Kuskin.  Mill  appeared. 


yo  • 


The  laureate  was  bur  recently  dead,  and  the  storm  ot* 
uncritical,  ill-advised  adulation  still  beat  about  his 
nar;ie,  while  eulogistic  studies  and  flatulent  monographs 
were  poured  forth  without  any  discrimination  whatever."^ 

The  insistence  by  a competent  critic  on  the  admiiration  of 
Tezinyson’s  more  legitimate  and  permanent  qualities  at  a 
time  when  he  *#as  popularly  regarded  as  having  a mission 
to  instil  pnilosophy,  religion,  morality,  and  patriotism 
into  the  life  of  the  English  people,  constituted  nothing 
less  than  a conspicuous  public  service. 

Harrison's  conception  of  the  qualifications  of 
the  critic  also  appear  in  the  same  volume,  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  discriminating  essay  on  Matthew  Arnold. 

Harrison  approaches  Arnold, in  this  section,  as  a phllo- 
sopner  and  theologian.  His  approach  is  extremely  reluct- 
ant, for  he  can  work  up  no  glov/  over  Arnold's  controversial 
writings  when  they  Invade  h^^s  ov/n  special  field.  With 
Culture  as  the  appellate  court,  Harrison  finds,  Arnold 
set  up  as  supreme  a,rbiter,  v/hence  he  lectured  on  polities, 
philosophy,  and  religion,  without  system,  principles,  or 
doctrine.  This  is  irrational,  and  to  Harrison,  irration- 
ality, irjfi.pulse,  intuition,  any  kind  of  unanalyzed  emotion, 
employed  in  such  a manner,  Yvas  unthinkable,  — the  dead- 
liest of  the  seven  sins. 

1.  W.P.  Trent.  Eorum.  30:119. 


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96 


Principles,  standards,  a theory,  a "touchstone", 
these,  Harrison  reels,  are  the  first  items  of  equipment 
in  the  hit  of  the  moralist  or  critic. 

In  an  essay  on  J.A.  Symonds,  Harrison  unfolds 
still  further  his  conception  of  the  qualifications  of  a 
critic,  which  I have  already  ascrihed  to  Harrison,  himself, 
Peeling  that  Symonds  had  better  commend  over  his  emotions 
then  Ruskin,  and  a closer  f air.iliarity  v/ith  the  whole  field 
of  modern  lirerarure  and  art  than  either  Rushin  or  Arnold, 
he  wrote 

"The  great  value  of  Symonds *s  judgemients 
abour  literature  and  art  arises  from  his 
uniform  combination  of  comprehensive  learn- 
ing with  Judicial  temper."  1 

The  latter  quality  has  been  lacking  in  the  work  of  many 
illustrious  literary  men.  It  is  absent  in  all  except  the 
occasional  best  of  the  criticism  and  history  of  Garlyle , 
in  Proude  with  his  airy  emancipation  from  cold  matters  of 
fact,  in  Macaulay  "banging  his  antithetic  drum,"  WhiJe 
Harrison  possessed  precisely  that  quality  illustrated  by 
the  defects  of  Carlyle,  Froude,  and  Macaulay,  ttiey,  in 
turn,  especially  Carlyle,  were  endowed  with  tiie  imponder- 
able pov/er  coffipleuely  denied  Harrison,  of  cornmnni eat  mg 
new  and  pov/erful  ideas  by  intuitive  flashes  of  broad  in- 
sight, or  Of  illuminating  an  historical  epoch  with  a glov»r 
which  will  last  for  all  time. 

1.  Tennyson,  Ruskin,  Mill,  p,  144, 


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IV.  97. 

We  should  display  a singular  cbtuseness  to 
huirisn  1‘rallty,  if  we  were  to  suppose  that  a man,  once 
having  staked  his  wnole  intellectual  lire  on  one  dom- 
intint  idea,  or  set  of  ideas,  would  not  reveal  that 
attitude  in  his  approach  to  literature. 

To  one  v/ho  has  read  the  hooks  of  Frederic 
Harrison,  who  has  responded  with  wnat  sympathy  he  c an  to 
Harrison's  earnest,  elociuent  special  pleading,  who  has 
felt  the  rorce  of  his  logic  and  the  edge  of  his  irony, 
the  wonder  grows  that  he  is  so  moderate  in  his  literary 
propagandizing  for  the  positivistic  creed.  His  critical 
eye,  indeed,  Is  not  altogether  free  ifom  Comtian  astig- 
matism. His  ingenuity  in  bringing  to  view  an  unsus- 
pected positivistic  strain  in  all  admirable  writers  is 
Inexhaustible,  v/hen,  on  occasion,  the  veteran  of  Posi- 
tivism unfurls  his  banner.  Sometimes  the  positivism 
outcrops  in  a manner  which  gives  a hostile  cast  to  his 
critical  attitude.  In  an  essay  on  Tennyson,  for  example, 
Harrison  echoes  ironically  the  Tennysonian  sentiment 
that  "we  ha.ve  but  faith,  we  cannot  know,"  "Tennyson", 
he  wrote,  "again  for  the  thousandth  time  re-echoes  most 
musically  our  sense  of  ignorance"  in  the  same  key  with 
"hundreds  of  beautiful  essays  full  of  heroics,  nope, 
and  vague  warnings  about  something  'behind  the  veil'". 

We  may  obviously  infer  lYom  this  tone  that  faintly 
trusting  in  the  larger  hope  is  not  a temper  of  mind 
agreeable  to  a Positivist.  Harrison  is  v/riting  here  in 
precisely  the  tone  v;lth  which  ne  would  devote  himself 


'K'V-'-/  .-tYi/IT  ’••.»'•  ’■«’.  ■'  »!'. " /v:^^r  ,?«•.?!»*  ‘ 

V '.  ’4-’’  •'  ’ * '-’■i' r ■'  > A,  . ‘ 7<i  i^a '^^■R!;■li 

* . * t i""'  ^ -(■'•  ■*  j,  ' " ‘ ^ 

tfiv  * i<wi  ^ItASU 

jtf  ^ *1: 

*'  Ta  > ' • vt'”  '■-  ' -;i)*5fa'  ‘ 

•-..,6  r‘:i 't^f-^jf/ ' ^''  '>'■“ 


5^*.-  1*^ 


.*.  r 


, ao  :^  4-'  W 


&ir  boA  ->^f(i.  Ih<i>  It  Jr  4^^ 


v» ;Ci  lia  .: . oa  ,4e'' 


»v 


it.' 


. t 0 : .* * i .'  V'/iaofi  \ 


n-^l 


tv 


I, »' 


41 J 


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17.:  .y 

I ♦ '••^  ^ ' * J 

■Y*^i  ■’'•***' '*hj  *cl<  , . j *r rf» . 4 

~ A , j"  _ ^ ^'v'  ” * "'  * '4-i  ^ 

:v)  . ci  i.r^v  i <4“  ■ .la 

',  , ...4  ^7;  <1  ^ tjf;  ■ **  ■ 


^ »,  *•- 

• * V 


/ » ihiiv^'J,  O'J  ^ jjtifiU^inoit  ..Witf.tf  ,uk^ii»rt,.a''^5f'i^ 

V l^AVT.-'  1|M>  ’ , ■ wW  ;„  • 

4*  4f«vx:  tfO‘>lf^ 

-•»*-*  " ' ;^  ' . *'i 

,.•  ^c,vo'^,,:,  ‘/V  ho^yjt^ur.ry  i^'Sft''  . r4-.';;'jfTv-»  -l^ 

' '*  ■ ' \ J ’ **  T * ' I 1 i.  " 'ft 

iji»fliir-.  .*.  i .1  t.  ' *.»w  ■ 


, • ^1 

f ;»-.  i..*  1. lju.twff ; JT 1.J:  i|=E iT'ti 

•i''i'wfi‘:.  •twpC  4r»..‘:*'»4»:‘ftiif{' , 


• tfi. 


f^v  n 


v-‘' J.  *'d  ;/  foiftii- 


' I '-iJi: 


r Jxjfc  r , 4i y.t j tu/j  \ c i £{A  rr .■»'4f' ^ 

--^  ''  ’ ‘ini 


• Vf ''yfi-iis"  taoc  _ 


t a:  tq  %Qwi:^  i,  '4fiul 

• ■ / / ■ ! ■ • 


'Ml, 


98 


in  a review  to  a piece  oi'  agnostic,  tneist,  or  Anglican 
speculation,  i'or  controversial  purposes  its  energy  is 
adJiiirable,  but  its  tone  deviaues  sharply  from  xbat 
criticism  which  is  distinguished  by  ixs  Judicial  temper. 

I have  alluded  above  to  Harrison’s  indefati- 
gability in  searching  out  common  bases,  common  interests, 
enthusias2i:.s,  sympathies . and  aspirations  with  those  who 
stand  at  opposite  poles  from  him  in  all  questions 
bearing  on  the  "eternal  verities."  He  is  supple  and 
persuasive,  and  attacks  his  task  blithely.  Then  with 
an  almost  imperceptible  shift  of  emphasis,  he  modulates 
to  a totally  unrelated  key,  and  hails  his  accredited 
antagonists  as  fellovz-workers  in  the  same  vineyard. 

By  this  method,  he  nas  inscribed  many  strange  names  on 
the  muster  rolls  of  Humanity,  kor  nis  motley,  brilliant 
assemblage  of  recruits,  Harrison  gladly  oifers  vicarious 
Av  or  ship  at  the  snrme  of  Comte. 

The  company  is  heterogeneous.  Let  me  choose  at 
random  a trio  wnomi  Harrison  hailed  affably  as  comrades,  - 
John  Ruskin,  MattheAv  Arnold,  and  Tnomas  Huxley,  I 
know  of  no  important  name  in  the  literature  of  the  nine- 
teenth ceni-ury  which  would  represent  a more  divergent 
ana  remote  point  of  vievir  from  the  otner  two,  if  it  were 
substituted  for  one  of  the  three,  unless  it  be  that  of 
Jonn  Henry  Hewman. 

but  this  cacophony  of  antipatnies,  Harrison 
the  accomplished  organist,  reduces  to  a mellow  harmony, 
rolling  forth  -with  mietjestic  sonority  the  theme  of  a 


7'  ' '.  V,  . l K ’ ■ TT;  ,.l  k! 

1 V ‘ ^ .•  .‘ilil 

■•  '<■  ,:iv  .•■;i^‘-'»^'‘’'«'l»fi*f’v  '•  . 1 ‘Xvl5 


4| 


. .M  i!'  ■ ..  .'  f,4l‘  ta.,i^'dn» 

M.  J , . * . . ' ' ' ■ ■ ' 

-iv  ♦ ...  • r - . . XV / ^,-etii' ifj 


Kii  ^ rC  iTi  .1  ^ 


'■  ';•  • ,■■  ■ .iw'  OyiJlH^!';,4  ‘O 


J>lx  ;J 


iV.  It, 


0w  * ' K Cl  '-S 

TJjpSvM  -..  70  i‘\t/r. 

■ ^ ir'",  J'  ' ' '..  ■?  j T|g 


. f !i^  ’• 


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b'<|X  'XM  A ■ , . V ; .,trt(^II^!  rQ^^iTfri  ’TC'ifc.’.,,|,,  'n 

(» is  t - . • '•’- *M5  ’'.Pi  ’ ' V >'■ 

7 '»V  ..  -''''>  ■ C'* 


F 


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■ ' '^  ^ <■  • i'^«a  ^'.>  r.-.  -.ji^  4|l';l^^{'S^-  ^ 

'flli  , 15*..  fiju;  , :ti'.(it/lo 

, ..IrWiS  ^ ‘’  •#^ 


j ' ',  i-'Tj 


i 


mn  wiwwk**  iMrt;  , r ' *f  W A | . J.  ’ ** ’ jtfll 

K mU  Q ,n  II  .r,  ^ •^^r  t i wj  / Tu-  *jS^‘s  %«U' V bah%j  itQm"'Jtm 

p.  •»»-.  ...»  I/-. 


’ :pii- cmi'f  y , f_i. 

. - - J * ■ V'.  fcSL  ^ 

• — ■"  7-. ''7-  T;  . ^ i 

V .•  ^ ' ; ft.. 

I •■»''''■-.  ''‘7  03  ,'■■  4 . -x;.i.^;‘i;t^7-  ,/  . 77  ... 

woi'itv.t  4;  <i/.'  -Ifctyi'AMi'i;',  S4i^  ■ 


vro 

pt  *'  ' .■-"  ■;■  V'  A 

H^.!*  •!.? 

I ’ ',’>  A'. .!’  '•'*  aIj! 

litWMiP' 

.A.  7 '-tjf 


'■'V.-V^  7.  ' ;y'','  t ' .3liH  ’*7^ 

■ ' - i?  V-  .•  i '.JM  j ' 


Beaux-y  iimrietn,  narinonious,  ineiTabie,  spherical.  Harri- 
son's reeling  ar  at-oneness  with  Rushin  was  based  upon 
nis  ov/n  perception  that  "morally,  spiritually,  as  seen 
through  a glass  darhly,  I believe  uhat  his  teachers  and. 
my  teachers  are  essentially  one."  as  Harrison  can  easily 
manage  for  Comte  a handsome,  ir  limited,  commendation 
of  polytheism,  eciually  well  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  he 
can  easily  accomplish  a curtsey  to  Arziold,  or  to  Huxley, 
or  Ruskin.  With  some  of  the  latter's  strong  affinities 
in  mind,  Harrison  enumerates  medieval  architecture,  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  the  works  of  Sir  ?/alter  Scott 
as  objects  of  Auguste  Comte's  transfixed  adiriiration,  in 
which  respect  he  (Harrison)  will  not  yield  for  him  (Comte) 
second  place  even  to  him  (Ruskin) . It  is  this  medieval 
and  Renaissance  period  that  Ruskiii  "adorned  with  color", 
Harrison  said,  and  to  which  Comte  gave  a philosophy. 

Such  enthusiastic  medievalism  bursting  from  tne  spirit 
of  a hot  liberal  has  its  comic  aspects.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  shade  of  Ruskin  was  not  insensible  to 
Harrison’s  delicate  ad  hominem  argument. 

It  was  shorxly  aiter  Huxiey  published  his 
hssays  unon  dome  Controverted  Questions  (Ib^S)  in  which 
he  criticized  sharply  Comte  ana  tae  vhiole  Rositivist 
movement,  and  referred  ironically  to  the  prophetic  and 
pontifical  aspects  of  Harrison's  positivistic  activities, 
tha.t  Harrison  discovered  that  he,  Comte,  and  Huxley  were  . 
all  cultlve^ting  the  same  garden.  The  difference,  he 
come  to  see,  was  merely  one  of  emphasis,  the  positivist 


^’^,Jw^i(r‘f.iK..-i  ii¥6T?£-:, 


atsm  jJ*  * ' .■•■'*  ''  ^'JJfiH 

Hjf'  -ku'Y^A  y.  i 

, *'"■.;  , •■■». -■ --'^■*!  _ tv”'®'' 

- ,‘t/\  W 0»«?™7l 

Pfltf  ‘ ■ ■ • — >•'  V •?'  ’’">  - ’*'  - ^ 'ni! 

< ■ ^iik^'pF'm.'u'..-..  . -*  .'?“■  ■■ 

J;' "u-  J’-.v.'»i;,‘'M\.  .... . • 1 •-;it'*~:  V.'  ' if, it 

fjri  a , ’ I *v  ' 

» 'I 


*v 

<N 


^ n . ,1'0  ^■. ihon  ■ J I »•?  .1  , „,^; 

^ V ' '.*.'.**  ‘ ,.  ' ..  . * ' ■,  ' •*  , . ■' 

tl'JTTSU'jJ  .-.ii  - r 


it' 


■ ; o,t '^tu  > C, \/s ■}  r )l  . ; » e(|i».^, ;;. , 

• N 


t \'Mv^  . - ■ .?  t *y;  ^ . :*»„  •'^g.}  M^*SJ 

? ' ' **  ■ • 

.•  '■'  .'  LX-  ••  .;  ■ ,:ti  f {f4.p^ 

*1  i ''yC'  ’ ,''■  -1  ' ' 

')  <tj  ■ *»  Yj/, 


■ *». ■ V'-aii 

-.  :%  Ai^r^  ,.^x  t-.-i*  x*"  ';;•; t -S.4 *iSSj 

' ‘''  - / • . i ■ '■'*'' .»  ■ 

_ wTHHJfH  ..'i.,f  .*  al'i  t-.}  **.>-;  v.'j-it.,..r  / *i  -*  .'i 


rc^t^ 


><» 


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IV 


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t.  t.v*  e 


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-i  V''  ' >b * 

£(  a y fl. 

I-  .'  • 1 V , 4m i A K I'T^A. ■ -. 'U  w2.- 


lOU 


accepting  tne  agnostic  position  as  a matter  or  logic, 
but  going  on  rrom  the  bare  negation  in  wnicn  tne  agnostic 
rested  contentedly,  to  develop  a religious  and  social 
prograia  on  the  basis  or  demonstrable  knowledge.  Karri- 
son  is  thus  able  to  write  or  Huxley,  "on  the  purely 
intellectual  ground  ...  I would  claim  nim  as  in  a rair 
v/ay  to  become  — I v;ill  not  say  a Positivist,  ror  he 
hates  tnat  and  all  sucn  nem.es,  — but  I will  say  a col- 
league with  me  and  my  rr lends  in  tne  work  oi‘  popular 
scientific  teaching  to  v;nien  we  have^long  devoted  our- 
selves . " 

Althougn  Huxley  "could  just  as  soon  bov/  dovm 
and  v/orsnip  the  generalized  conception  orAWllderness  of 

A 

apes"  as  to  v/orsnip  Humafiity,  he  still  felt 


"Inat  a man  should  deteririlne  uo  devote  himself 
to  tne  service  or  humanity  - including  in- 
tellectual and  moral  self,  culture  under 
that  naiiie;  that  this  should  be,  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word,  his  religion  — is  not 
an  intelligible,  but,  I tnlnk,  a laudable 
resolution.  And  ^ ^ greatly  disposed  to 
believe  tnat  it  is  the  only  reli.j.clon  wni ch 
will  -prove  itself  to  be  unassailably  accgut- 
aole  so  long  as  tne  numan  race  endures. " 

This  "service  of  man"  — not  "vjorsnip  of  Eumanlty"  — 

Harrison  says  exultantly,  is  all  that  he  asksl  He  has 

found  at  last  common  ground  with  a redoubtable  foe,  — 

and  hoisted  him  by  his  own  petard  too.  With  tne  most 

demure  humility,  Harrison  aligns  Huxley  beside  him  as 

"a  rudimentary  Positivist." 


1.  The  Philosophy  of  Common  Sense,  p.  285. 


101 


Harrison  displays  iiis  most  consuirunate  suHtlety 
in  his  trea^tment  of  Arnold,  whose  philosophical  and 
social  principles  seemed  to  him  as  vague  as  his  Judge- 
ments seemed,  in  their  pretensions,  omniscient. 

Study  of  Arnold’s  theological  criticism  convinces  Harrison 
that  Arnold,  like  M.  Jourdain>  and  many  others,  "was 
constantly  talking  Comte  'without  knov/ing  it."  The 
conclusion  of  Culuure  and  Anarchy . says  Harrison,  is 
not  only  "a  fine  piece  of  English",  hut  "the  siumnlng 
up  of  the  mission  of  Culture  is  entirely  and  exactly 
the  mission  of  Positivism  and  is  even  expressed  in 
the  very  language  used  by  Comte."  Let  us  not  he  dis- 
concerted here  hy  the  oblique  allusion  to  Arnold  as  a 
plagiarist  of  Comte.  Harrison’s  intention  was  pure 
and  earnest,  and  he  doubtless  spoke  from  a Itill  heart. 

It  'Will  be  readily  seen  from  the  illustrations 
which  have  been  given  that  Harrison  has  set  up  a very 
elastic  principle,  capable  of  being  invoked  on  occasion, 
to  drive  a foe  into  utter  confusion  by  the  proffer a.o:^ 
a brotherly  embrace.  As  for  Ruskin,  Huxley,  and 
Arnold,  he  delivered  them,  betrayed  by  a kiss,  into  the 
hands  of  the  Positivists.  Imagine  now  their  embarrass- 
ment and  chagrin  when  by  chance^  they  meet  on  some  golden 
thoroughfare,  by  some  wall  of  Jasper  or  chrysopraset 
What  consternation  we  may  fancy  descending  upon  them, 
as  they  proceed  together  toward  the  meeting  of  some 
paradisiacal  metaphysical  society  to  argue  tne  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  inadvertently  to  fall  in  with  the 


IT  ' 


-*-^1*1- TiTi  TirTTinv 


KVtJrdUk. 

? ' * '-  ,.  ■ ' wf  , ' ' -< ,,.  • I m^'  r : *"■ 

,M»^.i  iyC,:..' (ono[^4  'JO 

.li-  Vv- iiV/  !Lt 


,j«u.vu.  v-'tfs  la-  i»^>t^-ifX!i  knU-^-kXm’dL  ^v>  --L  %:  ' 

s®. ■» 

-r.,'jlraf  I- 


> J 'fl ' 


'■“  !• 


* •■‘oi  tiio  ^il 


^ 5;i£- ir^'  VC- 

' •'?,  ' • -'E 

* , . • fc-  .*5  .«; 

. *■''  i..-J 

: ■ i\  iHtMi . '' 

‘ V'iitt  *'^'3v 


v:.r  Z^,ni 


- .*'  43Sj^'^  ' .V;<i'i 

* ' •"  ■ 4^' ' - ’ 'V 

'■  l\lir‘^’-  * V 9 .VJ-'y'  r tiJm 

't  j'« ;ri  wlr'^oi  •'-  • ’!' • a:#..  M »: . 12*#. ' .' ' . 


wl 


v’.  * 

. *v  *^1 


r»^,e\ta)|  X* 


Xa^, 


V.  . rTu  <o,<.'i®>‘i‘,  affitf.:-  ii  I 

'v  - * ' 


’ ,.j  ■ T ij-s,  '•'  ^ '''^  ■ 


» . i-  ■ ' ■ ■■*jj  •‘tfi  n ■'  . 

V /•  ,‘,c4'  »U- ■■,if -.<i:u’.^' ^ ^ 

***.«»  !.-i  ;<;  iv  , 


'^TtLl.  |M.i}!. 'i  '-i  ; 'i5fc 

■'  ; ..  I 

; . .-*11  Wi^$_: 

r--  ■■  '4  4«iV;i, '*iO.  r<  %.< 


V, 


V 


r SMkNmP®  Ad.  ■ -"' -At*  -</i'’'  • ^ iP^  V . ' 'i'  -sffT  TV’i 


"M 


e<i 


. 'v#;3  V 

tv  • t>.  a ’•.  ■ ’-  .'*  I ■«*(.' 


■ /,  .ivi  i \fr  - 


- 


102 


genial  Harrison  who  greets  them  as  fellow  Positivists  I 
One  imagines  in  Rusk  in  an  impeiiuoiis  toss  of  the  head,  and 
a fluent,  explosive  expression  of  exacerbation;  in 
Arnold  infinite  c^ulet  chagrin,  in  Huxley  an  incisive, 
blistering  comment,  — in  Harrison  the  synthetic,  emol- 
lient gesture. 

V. 

"If  there  are  fashions,  habits,  and  tastes  which 
the  rising  generation  is  certain  to  despise,"  v/rote 
Harrison  in  "Early  Victorian  Literature"  v/ith  the 
slightly  cynical  acojnen  of  seventy  five  years,  "it  is 
such  as  ?/ere  current  in  the  youth  of  their  oim  parents 
about  thirty  or  forty  years  before  them.  The  collars, 
the  bonnets,  the  furniture,  the  etiquette,  the  books  of 
that  age  always  seem  to  the  young  to  be  the  last  word 
of  all  that  is  awlrward  and  'bad  form’ , although  in 
two  or  three  generations  these  very  modes  regain  a cer- 
tain quaint  charm."  ^ 

A glance  today  at  the  list  of  authors  who,  in 
Harrison's  opinion  "from  the  point  of  view  of  the  his- 
torian of  ideas,  and  of  manners  . . . record  the  successive 
influences  which,  in  the  last  fifty  years  or  so,  he.ve 
moulded  or  reflected  English  opinion" , impresses  one 
with  the  emphatic  truth  that  the  teachers  of  the  fathers 
constitute  the  antipathies  of  the  sons.  Carlyle,  Macaul- 
ay, Disraeli,  Thackeray,  Dickens,  Bronte,  Kingsley, 
Trollope,  Eliot  — they  are  not  in  uhese  latter  days  so 

1.  Early  Victorian  Literature,  p.  lys. 


Js  . iMii  ii  fc  r n'  ,i.  ^i.  f «>|p , 


'mw 


rw«J  t: 


''•  1 lv-liilt'~  '>.oi/u-'l'i(<T'Jii(  ; ■,<<  , o'liv'fiWi 

■/  v»«, 

■».  lie  Wi.  ■*..  ...J10^.  Ij,-  ; i 1^, 

JT’, Ik  » '■  \ - a!'’,  ' ' ••' 

'J,*.  _.  LH  - ..  _ . . , ' ‘ ''.’^I 


.w 

' -f- 
••N. 


- <!»j  'V  ik4  . ,a,^r— 

' '^'  * k-  ■ -- 

'■*  ' ' ' .■^■'V '‘‘  '■  Vm  ^ 

fl 


'<ii  ! 

.v.:-'>,'^’j;‘»  •'iT 


' Hh  I { : f • I , ai\  ^ 

M'‘t 


J*  . ' ■ ' , ’■  ^ ' ' ' ■ ‘ ..<sii- 

i>  - ';' ; ■ ' -V  ■■<■.•;.  •'yS,™.-J 


.r-.^  t4f.V'53iSyiA»'«:- •</  ii.V-<(tv4i.,i./ iW 

.-.  , ■ ' ■>  " ■ ■ ■;^?'|,.  ■.- 
» *•*  r» tJ  • 'ii*  'u  ■ *■  I . : e.  ’ f / ' * \ 'i  <?  'i4i  ')| ; J ’^iJjL 

1 . . . ^ ■ .j/M 


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«i;7.  k>, 


: vi; 


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1'  • •“  ' 

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much  violently  repudiated,  perhaps,  as  egregiously 
ignored  as  h eing  inconsetiuential.  The  nev/  generation 
seeks  new  voices  to  expound  its  philoson'ny,  to  register 
its  complaints,  and  record  its  sensations. 

Yet  these  names  bulk  large  in  the  literature  oi* 
the  first  half  of  the  reign  of  Victoria,  and  an  examin- 
ation of  their  literature  should  leave  unexplored  few 
nuances  of  nineteenth  century  manners  and  thoughts. 

The  central  achievement  or  the  nineteenth 
century,  wrote  Harrison  in  the  volume  quoted  above, 
was  tne  discovery  of  tne  reign  of  law  in  society;  law 
being  understood  as  the  biologist,  physicist,  ar  astron- 
omer understands  it. 

"This  social  aspect  of  thought  colours  the 
poetry,  tne  romance,  the  literature,  the 
art,  and  rhe  philosophy  of  the  Victorian  Age." 

Wide  as  may  be  the  differences  between  the  work  of  such 

men  as  Tennyson,  Darwin,  Mewman,  Ruskin,  Moriey,  or 

jj'roude,  they  have  in  common  a characteristic  unique  of 

their  age,  — social  earnestness,  "enthusiasm  for  social 

truths  as  an  Instruinent  of  reform" , founded  upon  the 

believ  tnat  txie  idea  of  invariable  law  offered  a solution 

for  the  progress  of  society.  V/itn  its  preoccup.^tion  witn 

science  and  with  social  energies,  English  literature  in 

the  last  century  vastly  enlarged  its  boundaries,  at  tne 

sarjie  time  abandoning  the  Ciceronian  prose,  aiid  classical 

ideals  of  tne  eighteenth  century  belletrists.  It  gained 

thereby  immeasurably  in  the  force  and  originality  of  its 

1.  Ibid.  p.  It 


3 


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profcje,  bux.  lost  trace,  in  the  preponderance  of  practical, 
sociological  interests^  of  the  flow  of  England's  Helicon. 

Hot  since  Shelley  conceived  his  "Prometheus", 
nas  English  poetry  "attempted  to  scale  the  empyrean  of 
song."  As  tiie  type  of  modern,  scientific  thougnt,  evo- 
lution, with  its  emphasis  upon  correctness  of  observation 
its  nard,  practical  realism,  its  absorption  in  the  collec 
tion,  classif ication,  and  interpretation  of  tne  data  of 
experience,  crusned  out  the  more  spontaneous  forms  of 
literature.  "Poetry  and  romance  lost  something  of  tneir 
wilder  fancy  and  uneir  light  heart."  In  the  same  vein, 
Harrison  wrote  "Tne  age  is  against  the  romance  of  colour, 
movement,  passion,  and  jollity." 

An  effective  lignt  is  tnrown  on  tne  earlier  gen- 
eration or  Victorians  by  Harrison's  study  of  Carlyle,  who 
illustrates  by  contrast  the  q.ualities  of  the  contemporary 
literature.  Wixh  passionate  ardour  he  tnrew  nimself 
athwart  the  spirit  of  the  age,  cryixig  out  v/ildly  in  nis 
ovm  strange  idiom.  Despite  all  handicap,  the  obscurity 
of  the  philosophy  of  Sartor  axiu  its  (lothic  ornamentation; 
despite  -&he  savage,  gnarled  Puritanism  whose  creed  he 
outlived,  but  whose  intolerance  clung  to  him;  despite 
"the  drivel  of  his  Pro-slavery  advocacy",  and  his  "ill- 
conditioned  snarling  at  honest  men  labouring  to  reform 
ancient  abuses",  Carlyle  remained  "if  not  the  greatest 
prose  master  of  our  age  . . . by  virtue  of  his  original 
genius  and'  mass  of  stroke,  the  literary  dictator  of 
Victorian  prose",  ^reat  and  fruitful  as  was  Carlyle's 


genius,  and  powerful  as  ills  influence  remains  even  to 
the  second  and  third  generation,  xie  will  not  live, 

Harrison  concludes.  His  v/ork  was  destructive,  illuminating 
in  some  v/ays  prophetic,  but  in  disharmony  with  his  age. 

Like  Kuskin,  he  set  nimselr  at  deriance  of  all  men,  as 
evolving  absolute  truth  out  of  nls  ov/n  inner  consciousness. 

one  of  the  strangest  and  most  unjust  of  tne 
vagaries  of  current  taste  is  the  almost  total  obscurity 
into  which  the  novels  of  Benjamin  Disraeli  and  Antnony 
Trollope  have  fallen;  the  one  a master  of  orilllant, 
audacious  satire,  the  other  a master  of  limpia,  supple, 
melodious  prose;  tne  one  painting  with  quick  strokes 
the  political  world  of  nineteenth  century  England,  as  seen 
by  an  astute  statesman;  the  other  relating  the  parlia- 
mentary and  ministerial  world  witn  London  society,  so  as 
to  give  "the  best  record  of  actual  manners  in  tne  higher 
English  society  between  1355  aiid  1875," 

In  his  treatment  of  Disraeli  and  Trollope,  Har- 
rison has  seized  upon  the  typical  and  permanent  qualities, 
as  he  did  in  numerous  essays,  with  Kingsley,  Erancis  Hev/- 
man,  Canon  Liddon,  Spencer,  Dickens,  Eliot,  Huxle5»-,  and 
many  others,  all  of  vvnom  reveal  "that  which  is  so  char- 
acteristic of  recent  English  literature,  — its  strong, 
practical,  social,  ethical,  or  theoretical  bait."  His 
sumjiiary  of  Victorian  literature  is  so  comprehensive  as 
to  De  worthy  of  quotation  in  ilill;  — 


1 


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._  _ . * .,  '•  •.  *'**71 


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>«i  r-vi.  . U.4 


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'7 


■ ii-. 


106. 

"It  is  scientific,  subjective,  introspective, 
nisx-orical,  archeological:  — full  of  vital- 
ity, versatility,  and ' diligence ; — intensely 
personal,  defiant  of  all  law,  of  standards, 

01  convention:  — laborious,  exact,  but  often 
indifferent  to  grace,  syrmnetry,  or  colour:  — 
it  is  learned,  critical,  cultured:  --with  all 
its  arfibition  and  its  fine  reeling,  it  is  un- 
sympatnetic  to  'cne  nignest  forms  of  the  im- 
agination, and  quite  alien  to  the  drama  of 
action." 


VI. 

The  idea  wnich  so  many  of  us  so  fondly  cherish, 
that  tne  tv/entieth  century  will  achieve  something  new 
or  original  in  the  forms  of  literature,  Harrison  quashes 
firmly  as  "a  Juvenile  delusion."  As  a classical  scholar, 
he  facile ly  summons  the  past  experience  of  the  race  to 
bear  out  his  contention. 


"In  the  tv/o  or  three  thousand  years  that  have 
passed  since  Homer  and  Virgil,  Sappho  and 
Horace,  Plato  aiid  Cicero,  and  all  that  Italiaii, 
French,  and  English  literature  has  since  a- 
chieved,  tne  possibilities  of  form  in  which  genius 
can  find  expression  have^been  exheiusted  for 
all  practicfil  purposes."^ 


In  the  field  oi"  ideas  the  situation  is  quite  different. 

"The  limitless  expansion  of  human  life  and 
the  ceaseless  control  over  the  World  will 
give  perpetually  new  ideas  to  be  told  and 
inexnaustible  stores  of  fresh  knowledge  to 
be  spread.  But  human  language  does  not 
exp6Uid  with  infinite  rapidity,  and  the  forms 
of  huiiian  expression  are  not  infinitely  num- 
erous nor  infinitely  variable."  3 


1, Early  Victorian  Literature  p.  13. 

3.  Among  My  Books.  1913.  H.Y.  p.  133. 
3.  Ibid.  p.  133. 


10?. 

Literature  now  is  in  an  expectant,  transition- 
al state.  The  love  of  beauty  is  alive  and  potent.  The 
search  for  something  new  has. produced  a chaos  of  new 
realism,  old  idealism,  impressionism,  obscenity  and 
vulgarity;  but  the  search  goes  on  at  fever  heat.  One 
by  one  the  old  ideals  are  sloughed  off.  Every  fresh  im- 
pulse, every  exploring  talent,  struggles  for  expression 
under  the  direction  of  strange,  bizarre  conventions, 
ideals  but  newly  erected,  or  no  ideals  whatever.  In 
the  religious  and  moral  world  there  is  only  dreary  ne- 
gation. "Philosophers,  scientists,  poets,  theologians, 
all  celebrate  the  apotheosis  of  doubt."  The  ancient 
moral  and  spiritual  forces,  Harrison  recognizes,  have 
v/eakened  euid  dissolved.  The  v/orld  stands  wavering 
v^lthout  intellectual  organization,  moral  discipline,  or 
the  consolation  of  -religion.  It  expects  a new  faith; 
but  its  ¥/atchmen  nave  no  word  of  the  night.. 

With  all  the  passion  of  a Ruskin,  Harrison  be- 
lieves in  the  necessity  of  a faltn  and  religion  to  a 
society  v/hicn  is  to  achieve  notable  things  in  art  and 
letters.  There,  in  brief,  lies  tne  explanation  of  the 
dearth  of  great  literature  in  our  disillusioned  age. 

A somewhat  less  elusive  basis  upon  v/hich  Har- 
rison also  attempts  to  account  for  the  present  parlous 
state  of  English  literature,  is  the  commonplaceness  and 
drab  uniformity  of  the  society  which  he  sees  about  him. 

He  places  the  responsibility  squarely  upon  the  educa- 
tional system,  and  the  Hew  Womaii.  However  our  grand- 


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108 


fathers  may  have  hehaved,  our  grandmothers,  Harrison 
assures  us,  "held  fast  to  the  traditions  of  gentle- 
women," differing  essentially  in  that  respect  from  the 
contemporary,  emancipated  womanhood  which  holds  its 
course  towetrd  free  spirits,  economic  independence,  and 
lifted  norizons.  While  all  melts  beneath  our  feet,  the 
standards  of  gentility  have  lapsed  into  obscurity. 

Seeking  simplicity  we  have  found  vulgarity.  The  quest  of 
democracy  has  ended  in  . an  arid  commonplaceness  of 
social  atmosphere. 

Harrison’s  complaint  against  the  uniformity  of 
our  education  represents  at  once  a more  serious,  more 
plausible,  and  certainly  a more  gallant  explanaxion. 

"Millions  can  write  good  grasmiar,  easy  and 
accurate  sentences,  and  imitate  the  best 
examples  of  the  age.  Education  has b een 
driven  at  high  pressure  into  literary  lines, 
and  a monotonous  correctness  in  literary- 
taste  has  been  erected  into  a moral  code. 

Tens  of  thousands  of  us  can  put  the  finger 
on  a bit  of  exaggeration,  or  a false  light 
in  the  local  colour,  or  a slip  in  perfect 
realism."  ^ 

The  penalty  imposed  upon  us  is  a mechanical  culture. 

A great  quantity  or  good  lifer ature,  — but  no  great 
geniuses;  "thousands  of  graceful  verse-v/r iters"  — 
but  nov great  poet;  "a  torrent  of  skillful  fiction",  — 
and  no  great  novelist;  charming  painxers,  - but  no 
great  artist.  It  is  precisely  the  situation  against 
Which  J.S.  Mill  had  v/arned  from  the  middle  of  the  century 
until  the  end  of  his  life.  But  the  time  spirit  was 

1.  Early  Victorian  Literature,  p.  30-31. 


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109 


against  his  individualism. 

‘This  is  not  all. 

"Thera  are  other  things  which  check  the 
flow  of  a really  original ' literature,  though 
perhaps  a high  average  culture  and  a mechan- 
ical system  of  education  may  be  xne  most 
potent.  Violent  political  struggles  check 
it;  an  absorption  in  material  interests  checks 
it:  uniformity  of  habits,  a general  love  of 
comi'ort,  conscious  self-criticism  make  it 
dull  and  turbid."  ^ • 

leither  all  the  sins  of  the  hew  YiToman,  nor  the  evils  of 
universal  education,  nor  the  repressive  influence  on 
genius  of  a materialistic  luxurious  society,  nor  yet 
all  the  literary  crimes  of  a critical  fastidiousness 
are  to  be  wholly  laid  at  our  door  as  the  foundling  off- 
spring of  the  t'wentieth  century.  Harrison  readily  and 
generously  admits  collusion.  All  these  influences  were 
up  and  stirring  in  the  previous  century.  Our  generation 
surrers  the  consequences.  Our  fathers  let  slip  our 
faith.  Until  we  have  a nev/  religion,  — perhaps,  as 
Harrison  prophesies,  a religion  of  humanity  — we  must 
expect  our  literary  genius  to  blush  and  blow  in  the  ob- 
scurity of  the  modest  violet.  Meanvmile  we  reap  the 
whirlv/ind  sov/n  by  the  Victorians, 

VII . 

Harrison’s  practice  in  writing  harmonized  very 
v/ell  with  his  publicly  expressed  notions  on  the  subject 
of  style.  So  we  meuy  attend  to  the  maxims  he  addressed 
to  a group  of  Oxford  undergraduates  in  primer-f ashion: 

1.  Ibid.  p.33. 


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110 


"Think  it  out  quite  clearly  in  yoqr  own 
mind,  and  then  put  it  do?m  in  the  simplest 
v/ords  that  offer,  just  as  if  you  were  telling 
it  to  a ii’iend,  but  dropping  the  tags  of  the 
day  with  which  your  spoken  discourse  would 
naturally  be  garnished.  Be  familiar,  but 
by  no  means  vulgar.  At  any  rate,  be  easy, 
colloquial  if  you  like,  but  shun  those 
vocables  v/hlen  come  to  us  across  the  Atlantic, 
or  .from  Hevmiarket  and  bliitschapel,  with  wnicn 
the  gilded  youth  and  journalists  ’up-to-date' 
love  to  salt  their  language." 

These  remarks  are  eminently  sound,  and  self  explanatory. 

I have  chosen  at  random  other  aphoristic  utterances  of 

the  same  character. 

"llever  quoxe  anything  that  is  not  apt  and  .new... 
Stale  citations  of  well-worn  lines  give  us  a 
cold  shudder,  as  does  a pun  at  a dinner-party". 


"hever  imitate  any  v\rriter,  however  good.  All 
imitation  in  literature  is  a miscnier,  as  it 
is  in  art...  For  study  choose  those  who  have 
founded  no  school,  who  have  no  special  and 
imitable  style." 

Harrison  submits  an  interesting  list  of  authors  who 
may  be  safely  studied,  but  not  imitated,  for  their 
stylistic  excellence:  Pascal,  Voltaire,  Swift,  Huiae, 
Goldsmith,  Thackeray,  Froude,  Defoe,  and  the  Bible, 

"the  school  of  English  literature."  He  submits  a list, 
equally  instructive,  of  great  men  in  English  letters, 
who  are  "far  irom  perfect  writers,  and  positively  ratal 
if  taken  as  models";  Ruskin,  Gibbon,  Doctor  Johnson,  Burke, 
Macaulay,  and  garlyle;  all  of  whom  succumb  to  "purple 
patches",  rhetorical  artifice,  tricks,  fashions,  quaiiit- 
ness,  or  some  other  departure  from  the  ease,  lucidity. 


1.  Tennyson,  Ruskin,  Mill.  p.  18S. 


* , ^ i\ 

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111. 


moderation,  and  naturalness  or  a perfect  prose  style. 

What  is  said  here  of  style  is  advanced  only  as 
having  to  do  witn  the  externals,  or  technique  of  lit- 
erary composition,  — as  representing  those  special 
circumstances  wherein  the  individual  v/riter  may  vary  his 
practice  for  tne  improvement  or  debasement  of  nis  prose 
composition.  Due  recognition  is  given  to  tne  fundamental 
fact  that  personality  is  an  antecedent  condition  of  style, 

A _ 

— style  esz  1 * homme  meme . jsut  in  the  external  sense  of 
style,  as  represented  by  Ruskin’s  flights  of  fine 
writing,  by  Macaulay’s  interminable  balance  and  antithesis, 
by  Carlyle’s  deliberate  cultivation  of  a highly  individ- 
ual idiom,  — in  this  sense,  Harrison  was  no  stylist, 
let  there  are  many  adiuirable  qualities  to  be  found  in  his 
writings.  A classical  education,  wide  reading,  clear 
thinking,  and  an  invariable  preoccupation  with  tne  sub- 
stance of  his  discourse,-  developed  in  Harrison  a prose 
style  at  once  clear,  direct,  uncomplex,  and  devoid  of 
surplusage.  His  v/ritings  contain  a wealth  of  allusion 
whicn  he  handies  attractively  and  effectively  in  touch- 
and-go  fasnion. 

Take  for  example  a passage  from  an  essay  bait- 
ing the  theologians,  in  wnich  he  illustrates  tne  hetero- 
geneous character  of  the  sacred  v/ritings  of  the  Bible. 

’’Imagine  that  Beov/ulf  and  some  Saxon  v/ar  songs, 
Bede's  nis tor y,  King  Alfred’s  poems,  the  Saxon 
Chronicle,  Ancren  Riwle , Piers  the  Plowman, 
Latimer’s  sermons,  Knox  and  fox’s  homilies. 

Lord  Byron's  ’Cain’,  and  Carlyle’s  ’Sartor 
Resartus’  were  boifnd  up  in  one  voluble  and  dubbed 
tne  Britisn  Bible."  ^ 

1 » The  Positive  Evolution  of  Religion.  p.l?9. 


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.,v.  :":V-  ,. 

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ilS. 

In  suimaaiiion,  may  be  said  of  Harrison,  bbat  his  style 
is  alv/ays  cultivated,  lucid,  ancL  usually  cnaste.  But 
it  lachs  "tnat  last,  so  desirable  touch",  that  distinct, 
uniq.ue,  individualizing  stajnp  which  Vo  etokens  genius. 

Energy  witnin  the  limits  or  courtesy  characterizes  nis 
polemics. 

Harrison  was  somewnat  or  an  Arnoldian  temper  in 
his  catholic  appreciation  of  multirarlous  excellence. 
Unlike  Arnold,  however,  ne  displays  no  riashes  of  pro- 
found insignt ; he  brings  to  viev/  no  sudden,  unsuspected 
aspects  of  thougnt,  no  Hidden  recesses  in  the  works  he 
analyzes  and  expounds.  He  is,  I'lnally,  an  able,  correct, 
but  not  original,  critic.  Late  in  lire  he  vjrote  "As  an 
old  man,  I stand  by  tne  old  books,  the  old  classics,  tne 
old  style".  It  is  a succinct  statement  or  nis  arfilia- 
tions.  In  announcing  his  allegiance  to  the  classics, 
Harrison  forrelted,  or  course,  all  hope  of  receiving 
serious  attention  from  the  typically  t wentleth  century 
spirits.  He  is  separated  from  them  by  the  chasm  which 
yawns  between  contiguous  generations.  Eor  tne  discern- 
ing fev;  who  will  attend  to  him,  he  offers  the  inspiriting 
example  of  a generous  mind  v/hi cn  devoted  itself  for 
three  quarters  or  a century  to  the  expounding  or  a noble, 
impractical  ethical  religion,  wno  responded  delicately  to 
the  achievements  in  art  and  letters  of  nis  contemporaries, 
and  enthusiastically  to  the  achievements  of  the  great 
names  of  tne  past.  In  short,  Frederic  Harrison  repre- 
sents for  us  a mind  whicn,  v/lthout  genius  itself,  in  tne 


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113 


divine  sense  or  the  word,  ye&  was  aole  generously  to 
detect  it  in  others,  which, in  the  breadth  and  the  cent  or 
its  interests  expressed  _in  extenso  the  genius  or  tne 
Victorian  Age, 

Finis. 


114 


Sibliogrcinhy . 

The  Pnilosophy  of  Cortmionsense.  frederic  Harrison.  H.Y.  1907 

The  creed  of  a Layman.  Frederic  Harrison.  H.Y.  1907. 

The  Positive  Evolution  of  Religion.  Frederic  Harrison. 

H.Y.  1913. 

Tennyson,  Ruskln,  Mill.  Frederic  Harrison.  H.Y.  1900. 

Studies  in  Early  Victorian  Literature.  Frederic  Harrison, 

London.  1906. 

Tneophano.  Frederic  Harrison.  London  1904 
Oliver  CroimfTell.  Frederic  Harrison.  H.Y.  1894. 

Realities  and  Ideals.  Frederic  Hetrrison.  H.l.  1908. 

On  Sociexy.  Frederic  Harrison.  London,  1918. 

Chatham.  Frederic  Harrison.  London,  1905. 

Byz&tntine  History  in  the  Early  Middle  Ages.  (The  Rede 

Lecture.  1900).  Frederic  Harrison.  London  1900. 
Among  My  Books.  Frederic  Harrison.  London.  191S. 

John  Ruskin.  Frederic  Harrison.  I.Y.  1903. 

Tne  Meaning  of  History.  Frederic  Harrison.  I.Y.  1895, 
Memories  and  Thoughts,  Frederic  Harrison.  H.Y.  1906. 
National  and  Social  Problems.  Frederic  Harrison.  N.Y.  1908 
Novissima  Verba.  Frederic  Harrison.  London.  1931. 
Autobiographic  Memoirs.  Frederic  Harrison.  3v.  London,1911, 

The  Art  of  Rodin.  Louis  V/einberg.  N.Y.  1918. 

The  Story  of  Art  Throughout  the  Ages,  S.  Reinach.  M.Y.  1904 


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Biblioccra-'Dliy » (Continued)  . 


The  Hletory  of  English  Rationalisra  in  the  i\fineteenth 
Century.  A.W.  Benn.  2v.  London.  1906. 

History  of  Modern  Philosophy.  A.V/.  Benn.  London.  1912. 
Student's  History  of  Philosophy.  A.K.  Rogers.  H.Y.  1912. 
Liberalism.  L.T.  Hoohouse.  H.Y,  Holt's  Home  University 
Library. 

Magazine  Articles. 

(by  Erederic  Harrison) . 

De  Senectute.  Erederic  Harrison.  Eortn.  115:881. 

The  Art  of  Translation.  Frederic  Harrison.  Eorum  65:635 

9 pt  2:93 

The  Davm  of  a Hew  Era.  Frederic  Harrison.  H.Y.  Times 
Current  History. 

The  Doom  of  Germany  after  the  War.  H.Y.  Times  Cur.  Hist. 

7 pt.  2 359. 

(criticism,  reviews,,  and  personal 
sketches  of  Frederic  Harrison  ) . 

Frederic  Harrison's  Historical  Romance.  John  Morley. 

19C  56:571 

Y/asnlngton,  and  other  ilmerican  addresses,  rev.  Hation  73:474. 
Frederic  Harrison  in  America.  R of  R.  23:558. 

Our  latest  critic.  Dial  31:9. 

Tne  fireed  of  a Layman,  rev.  Liv  Age  254:185. 

A Social  Reformer.  Morton  Luce.  19C  89:117. 

Frederic  Harrison  as  Critic.  Academy  58:27. 

John  Ruskin.  rev.  Ath  1902,  2:443;  Atl  90:709; 
nation  75:389;  Dial  34:146. 


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Bibliogra-phy . (Continued)  . 

Tennyson,  Ruskln,  Mill.  rev.  Nation  70:483;  Bookm  11:88 
Uew  Essays  of  Erederic  Harrison.  W.V.  Trent.  Eoruiri  30:119. 
linety  Years  of  Memories:  an  interview  with  Erederic 
Harrison.  Liv.  Age  307:552. 

Frederic  Harrison  as  critic  of  Tennyson.  Dial  31:311. 
Harrison's  Impressions  of  America.  R of  K.  24:77. 


••  TP  4 ^ 


